About Thomas J.
Thomas J. Buiteweg built his legal foundation at the University of Michigan Law School, earning a J.D. in 1993 after completing an undergraduate degree in accounting at the University of Notre Dame in 1987. He entered law school following an early academic career rooted in numbers and business, a background that has informed much of his subsequent work.
He began his legal career in 1993 at GMAC, where he worked as a lawyer at a time when consumer finance and automotive lending were becoming more legally complex. That early experience exposed him to the intersection of lending practices and regulatory oversight. He later moved into in-house work and by 2011 served as Insurance Operations General Counsel at Ally Financial Inc., a role that put him inside both the operational and legal sides of a large financial services company.
In 2009 he took on a role in legal education as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School. He taught students while continuing to practice, blending classroom work with practical legal responsibilities. Three years later he returned to private practice in a senior position and became partner at Hudson Cook, LLP in 2012. His path has alternated between corporate counsel roles, teaching, and law firm practice, giving him a broad view of the issues that affect lenders, insurers, and service providers.
His professional memberships reflect those practical interests. He has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2009, and he joined the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers in 2010. He also maintains a long-standing professional affiliation that dates to 1993. These memberships keep him engaged with developments in consumer financial services law and foster discussion with peers on evolving regulatory and policy matters.
Colleagues describe his work as case- and contract-driven, rooted in statutory and regulatory detail. He has handled matters involving insurance operations, lending practices, and the legal structures that support large financial institutions. His accounting background helps him parse complex financial arrangements and communicate legal implications to business clients.
He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1993 and has continued practicing law in that jurisdiction. He is a partner at Hudson Cook LLP, where his work centers on issues arising in consumer financial services, insurance operations, and related compliance and transactional matters. He currently concentrates his practice on counseling financial services clients and handling matters tied to insurance and lending operations.
