Lizanne Thomas

Partner

Lizanne Thomas is Partner-in-Charge of the 150-lawyer Atlanta Office and heads the Firm's global corporate governance team. While her roots are as a public company M&A lawyer, Lizanne practices, teaches, and lives corporate governance. She participates in more than 100 board or committee meetings per year in her role as legal adviser to a number of public companies. She has taught corporate governance in lectures and panel presentations for leading business organizations, companies, and universities throughout the world. She has represented Board special committees in going private and other control transactions, as well as internal investigations involving issues from financial restatements to allegations of executive misconduct. Lizanne also has conducted numerous Board and committee evaluations and governance audits. She is experienced in public and private mergers and acquisitions and takeover preparedness as well.

Lizanne is a member of the Board of Directors of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) where she serves as chair of the Governance Committee, member of the Compensation Committee, and co-chair of the Special Committee charged with investigating a variety of allegations relating to the company.

Lizanne is active in the community. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Research Alliance, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and in various leadership roles for the Woodruff Arts Center, and is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. She is a Trustee of Furman University and former president of the Law Council for Washington & Lee University.