Thomas has an extensive background in business law, including: preparation of legal documents related to the private placement of securities; helping clients with the formation of multi-owner developments and communities, including condominiums, planned units, traditional subdivisions and HUD apartments; transactional representation in the purchase and sale of businesses; formation of corporations, LLCs and partnerships; commercial leasing; corporate representation of medical practices; preparation and review of business contracts; representation of planned unit and condominium associations and more. He represents several banks in western North Carolina on their larger commercial real estate lending transactions. His client list includes McKee Development, Archerd Bell Investment Group, Ironstone Investments, Crowfields Condominium Association, Eco Concepts Development, Asheville Eye, Tower Associates, JMAC Investments, Tunnel Vision, S.B. Coleman Construction, Carolina First Bank, Wachovia Bank and Whiteside Fund.

His work for S.B. Coleman includes obtaining limited air rights to ensure balcony space for residents of Twenty One Battery Park, a high-end, multi-use development in Downtown Asheville. He also organized the building's homeowners association and three subassociations. Thomas has helped with numerous other mixed use, and non-traditional condominium projects, including communities such as Canterbury Heights, Sawyer Motor Building Condominium, Sawyer Annex, Castanea Building, and Gaia Condominium.

When Windows of Childhood, LLC needed to raise capital to finance production of an independent film, Thomas provided legal counsel and documentation to ensure compliance with securities laws in the private placement of LLC membership interests. In addition, he has helped on numerous other private placements of securities in various ventures including other movies, inventions, web sites, leased commercial real estate, multi-tenant properties, real estate development projects and retirement communities.

He has worked with Archerd Bell Investment Group, Whiteside Fund, Eco Concepts Development, and other clients on the preparation of all phases of legal documents for complex real property transactions, and, in many cases ensured compliance with private placement securities requirements for admission of investors.

Thomas has worked on several occasions with clients who develop apartment complexes qualified under the HUD program, such as the Eastwood Apartments, Mosteller Mansion Apartments and Woodland Hills Apartments.

An attorney with McGuire, Wood & Bissette since 1988, and a partner since 1993, Thomas is chair of the firm's Management Committee. Thomas is a former Chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and is presently serving on its Executive Committee. He is serving a three-year term in the American Bar Association House of Delegates. He is also a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, and the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism. In 2005 he co-authored The Lawyers Guide to Strategic Planning for the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association (ABA), and he has led a forum on legal technology for the Association's Young Lawyers Division. In 1990, he was honored with the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award by the North Carolina Bar Association, and he has twice been named Asheville Kiwanian of the Year.