Tom has decades of experience helping alcohol and tobacco industry members with TTB related matters.  After retiring from TTB in 2014, Tom entered private practice and has assisted numerous craft brewers, distilleries, wineries, cider makers, and small tobacco producers and importers.   Before private practice, Tom worked in the Assistant Chief Counsel’s office for the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau, (TTB) in Cincinnati, and its predecessor agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).  With ATF, he was appointed as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia alternatively, in the years 1992, 1997 and 2002.  He was named TTB's Outstanding Professional Employee of the Year in 2007 and Team Member Employee of the Year in 2010.

With TTB, Tom Niekamp served primarily as Senior Counsel, handling a wide variety of complex legal matters, including litigation involving alcohol and tobacco.  He has served as lead counsel in numerous Federal Administrative Law Hearings in cases involving Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosive matters.  Tom has also prepared and made numerous legal presentations relating to the Federal Alcohol Administration Act and the Internal Revenue Code to industry members including contributions to the TTB EXPO in 2008 & 2009.  He was also a frequent visiting ATF Instructor for many years at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA.