Butler Snow LLP is pleased to welcome Thomas E. O’Connor, Jr. to the firm’s Products, Catastrophic & Industrial Litigation group in its Atlanta, Georgia, office.
“We are thrilled to welcome Tom to Butler Snow,” said Christopher R. Maddux, chair of Butler Snow. “He brings a rare combination of executive leadership, legal judgment, and operational insight developed through decades of advising multinational organizations on high-stakes compliance, governance, and crisis management matters. His expertise in navigating complex regulatory and business challenges will be an exceptional asset to our clients.”
Righton Lewis, practice group leader for Butler Snow’s firm’s Products, Catastrophic & Industrial Litigation group, added, “Tom will help establish the firm’s Crisis Management, Prevention & Response capability. This team is built around a simple idea: the wrong time to decide who is in charge, who to call, what to preserve, what to say, and how to respond to regulators is after a crisis event. In a company’s greatest moment of need, confusion is costly. Delay is costly.
With Tom’s leadership, we will help clients prevent crises where possible, build practical response systems, and train leadership teams to act decisively when the pressure is highest. The value is not just having a binder on the shelf. The value is knowing, in the moment that matters most, what to do and who to call. It is having a team already familiar with your business, your risks and your decision-makers before the emergency happens. Butler Snow helps clients prepare before a crisis, respond decisively when one occurs, and build stronger systems afterward.”
Thomas E. O’Connor, Jr.
O’Connor joins Butler Snow with more than 25 years of experience counseling global organizations on complex legal, regulatory, and operational matters. His practice also focuses on internal investigations, labor and employment matters, ESG initiatives, and enterprise risk management.
Throughout his career, O’Connor has served as a trusted advisor to executive leadership teams and boards of directors, guiding organizations through significant regulatory investigations, workplace safety matters, operational crises, and evolving compliance obligations. He has extensive experience with governance programs, conducting sensitive internal investigations, and advising businesses on regulatory strategy and risk mitigation across domestic and international operations.
Prior to joining Butler Snow, O’Connor led a private legal and compliance consulting practice serving growing companies, private equity-backed enterprises, and other large organizations. His experience includes advising on sanctions and international trade matters, enterprise safety and operational issues, and the development of sophisticated ethics and compliance frameworks aligned with evolving regulatory expectations.
Earlier in his career, O’Connor practiced labor and employment law and regulatory matters in private practice and served as a Field Examiner with the National Labor Relations Board. O’Connor earned his Juris Doctor from Saint Louis University School of Law, his Master of Arts from the University of Illinois, and his Bachelor of Science from SUNY Geneseo.
