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"Almost every good thing in my professional and personal life ties in some way back to W&L." - Lizanne Thomas ‘82L

Lizanne Thomas ‘82L holds legendary status at Washington and Lee University — not only due to her successful career and civic engagement but also her devoted service in nearly every volunteer capacity at W&L. She also established three endowments benefiting the Law School, and she and her husband, David Black ‘82L, were recognized as Honored Benefactors for their philanthropic support of W&L in February 2022.

“Almost every good thing in my professional and personal life ties in some way back to W&L,” Thomas said. “It has been a real honor to pay it forward.”

Thomas earned a B.A. in economics from Furman University in 1979, where she served as student body president and received the Donaldson Watkins Medal for her outstanding undergraduate work. She planned to attend law school right after graduating, and a W&L alumnus visiting Furman turned her sights toward W&L Law.

“His continued follow-up and investment of time convinced me that there was something special about carrying a W&L degree,” Thomas said.

After visiting, Thomas thought Lewis Hall and the small-town setting was just what she needed, although she joked that her first semester was a “vast wasteland,” not yet having honed disciplined professional habits. She laughed at the irony of the fact that one of her factors in choosing W&L Law was for the lack of distractions found in the idyllic rural setting, and yet she met her future husband shortly after arriving in Lexington.

A scholarship student, Thomas lived on a tight budget. Whatever the scholarship didn’t cover had to come from her own savings or from borrowing. Thomas allotted herself a food budget of $1.25 per day, subsisting largely on drip coffee and Campbell’s soup. In her third year, despite her careful budgeting efforts, she found herself behind in paying third semester tuition. Andrew “Uncas” McThenia ’58, ‘63L, who taught at W&L Law for 35 years, marched across the bridge to the treasurer’s office with orders to back off — that the Law School was proud of Thomas and that she would pay it when she could.

“Uncas was the heart of the Law School, and he is chief among those whom I will never forget,” Thomas said.

And indeed, she has repaid much more than her tuition.

Beginning the year after she graduated, Thomas has made a gift to the W&L Law Fund without fail. In 2015, she established the Lizanne Thomas ‘82L Law Endowment to provide unrestricted support for W&L Law. In 2020, at the beginning of the Leading Lives of Consequence campaign’s silent phase, she created the Lizanne Thomas ‘82L Women as Leaders in the Law Scholarship to support law students and promote women in the legal field. Still, Thomas wanted to do more and established a second scholarship in 2022 — the Rising Leaders Law Scholarship. In addition, she and her husband have supported many other university initiatives within the Law School and the College, such as the Roger D. Groot Professorship, the Houston H. Harte Center in Leyburn Library and the Colonnade restoration. Their names are now engraved on the Honored Benefactors Wall in Washington Hall to commemorate this tremendous philanthropy.

Thomas is also an inaugural member of the Lettie Pate Evans Society, W&L’s new donor recognition group celebrating women’s contributions to support the university.

“This society is about women coming together to support the entire W&L community. It is timely for women now to be comfortable with giving and leading by example,” she said. “I think it is important for women to own that what they are giving comes from their own blood, sweat and tears and that they are giving it away for the sake of others who will follow.”

Giving has encompassed more than dollar signs for Thomas, who has also been exceedingly generous with her time. She served for 10 years on W&L’s Board of Trustees, finishing her term last year, and now serves on the Leading Lives of Consequence campaign executive committee. She has been president of the Law Council, a law class agent, a member of multiple reunion committees and a guest lecturer. Last month, Thomas delivered the keynote address during Alumni Weekend’s Opening Assembly and was the 2022 Law Commencement speaker.

Thomas’ legal career at international law firm Jones Day spanned 41 years, and she has served on multiple boards of directors, including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc., Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., Atlantic Capital Bancshares and Southern Company — one of the nation’s largest utilities. Through hard work, discipline and support from the W&L network, she became a leading expert on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism, conflict transactions and internal investigations. Thomas has garnered recognition among the nation's top 100 directors, Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs and in the top 10 women in mergers and acquisitions. Throughout her trajectory, she said W&L alumni have continued to push her forward and show their confidence in her long before she felt she had earned it.

At a time when few women were present in corporate board rooms or providing counsel in court, Thomas held tight to the values she gained from W&L, finding they gave her a professional advantage in being able to talk to people. “I had to accept that when I walked through the door, I would be the only woman in the room and that what I wore, every move I made, every word I said would be examined a little more closely, and do you know what I say to that? Fine. That is a function of change, and that’s okay,” she said.

In addition to her career and dedication to W&L, Thomas gives her time to other nonprofit organizations, including serving on Furman’s Board of Trustees, the Woodruff Arts Center board and the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation Board of Trustees.

She is the first woman to serve on the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation board since Evans herself. Last year, Thomas delivered remarks during a celebration of philanthropy event W&L hosted and at which Evans was posthumously honored with the Washington Award as the university’s largest donor. Foundation board members attended the event and later contacted Thomas with an invitation to join them.

“I am not sure I have received a higher honor,” Thomas said, who has served on the board for a few months. “The fact that Evans is a role model for me, the fact that I live in Atlanta where she led the Coca-Cola Bottling Company after her husband’s death and the connective tissue between her and W&L makes it all the more complete — it just feels like kismet or serendipity. To be a participant in this group that has an opportunity to extend Evans’ wealth to change lives all over the country is a wonderful responsibility for me.”