Lizanne Thomas, a partner in Jones Day's M&A Practice, is one of the 22 lawyers recently elected to the sixth class of Fellows of the American College of Governance Counsel, the organization for leading corporate governance lawyers from the United States and Canada. The sixth class, which includes leading practitioners, general counsel, academics, and a former chief justice, brings the ranks of the College to 135 Fellows and Honorary Fellows.

Ms. Thomas, the leader of the Firm's Corporate Governance team, participates in about 100 board meetings per year as counsel to a number of public companies. She represents special committees in control and conflict transactions, as well as in internal investigations. She has considerable experience with shareholder activism, public and private M&A, takeover preparedness, and executive compensation. In addition, she lectures on governance to leading business organizations, companies, and universities.

Ms. Thomas serves or has served on the Boards of Directors of four publicly traded companies. For one of those companies, she co-chaired a special committee charged with investigating a variety of allegations. While she was chair of its governance committee, the company twice won national corporate governance awards for its shareholder engagement and disclosure.

She served as Contributing Editor for the 2020 edition of The Legal 500's Corporate Governance Country Comparative Guide, which provides readers with a pragmatic overview of the laws and regulations of corporate governance practice across a variety of jurisdictions.

In 2016, Ms. Thomas was named one of the top 100 directors by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Among her many other honors and distinctions, she is listed in "Band 1" in the Chambers USA guide.