Thomas is Of Counsel in the San Francisco and Washington D.C. offices of Latham & Watkins LLP. Thomas was a Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission from 2006-2013, and is nationally regarded as one of the preeminent practitioners in the areas of antitrust and trade regulation law. He has been lead counsel in more than 100 federal and state court antitrust cases and brings 40 years of expertise to Latham’s Global Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. While at the FTC, he played a key role in revitalizing the Commission’s litigation efforts, particularly in relation to merger enforcement. Prior to joining the FTC, Thomas served as the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection director from 1973 to 1975, and was a member of the Special Committee to Study the Role of the FTC in 1989. During his tenure at Latham (1994-2005) before he left for the FTC, Thomas was the former managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office. He successfully tried leading antitrust cases for a wide range of clients and won summary judgments for major corporations in the automobile, freight, pharmaceutical, publishing, and consumer electronics industries, among others. Prior to joining Latham, he was an antitrust litigator at McCutchen Firm (1966-1993). Thomas has been a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1988 and was Chairman of the ABA’s Antitrust Section (1990) and the State Bar of California’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Section (1993).