e-mail

317.639.1210

Practice Areas

General Business (including mergers & acquisitions, commercial transactions and general corporate); Regulated Industries (including Financial Institutions, Telecommunications, Alcoholic Beverages and related lobbying);  Nonprofit Organizations and Estate Planning.

Tom Ristine has handled a wide variety of transactional matters for general businesses, business in regulated industries, and nonprofit organizations.  Especially regarding regulated industries he has led projects involving actions by state and local legislative bodies as well as state and local regulatory/administrative boards and committees, for the benefit of individual businesses or nonprofits as well as for industries through the representation of trade associations.  He enjoys advocating to government on behalf of thriving businesses and nonprofits in need of legal infrastructures that enhance instead of impede their abilities to attain their goals, and he has especially enjoyed projects, both long-term and short-term, to reshape legislative, regulatory and governance structures to help clients.  To Tom, the practice of law is about creating structure where there is little or none, helping clients seize opportunities, and solving legal problems big or small, all while managing risk.

Education

Wabash College, A.B., magna cum laude (Economics) 1972
Duke University School of Law, J.D., 1975

Bar Admissions

Indiana, 1975;
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, 1975

Publications and Presentations

Tom has been a frequent presenter at seminars for lawyers, most often produced by the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum, including presentations on financial institutions laws, commercial law (UCC Articles 3, 4 & 9) and liquor permits, as well as legal issues affecting in-house legal departments and nonprofits.  He has made presentations at more than 15 annual conferences held by the American Bankers Association – the ABA’s “State Association Counsel Conferences” – and served as chair of that conference in 1999.  Also in the area of banking he has contributed numerous articles to the Indiana Bankers Association’s Hoosier Banker  magazine.  Indianapolis Business Journal named him to its “Who’s Who in Banking.”

Experience

1975-1982:  associate, Ice Miller Donadio & Ryan, Indianapolis
1983-2005:  partner, Ice Miller, Indianapolis
September 1, 2005 to present:  director, Lewis & Kappes, P.C., Indianapolis

Affiliations

Member, Indiana State Bar Association
Member, American Bar Association
Director and Corporate Secretary of Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Inc.
United Way of Central Indiana – 19 years as Director, 2 years as Governance Committee  Chair, 3 years as Leadership Giving Council Chair
Director of Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana Foundation
Past President of United Way/Community Service Council of Central Indiana
Past Chair of the Indiana Association of United Ways
 (Award for "Exemplary State Leadership" - 1999)
Past member of the Indiana Repertory Theatre Board of Directors
Past President of The Penrod Society
Commissioner of Track & Field for the 1987 Pan American Games

Honors and Awards

AV Peer Review Rating, Martindale-Hubbell