Jeane A. Thomas is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Antitrust and Privacy & Cybersecurity Groups, and co-chair of the firm's E-Discovery & Information Management Practice. She is resident in the firm’s Washington, D.C. and Brussels offices.
Ms. Thomas is engaged in all types of antitrust representations, including mergers and joint ventures, class and other civil litigation, and civil and criminal government investigations. She also counsels clients on a broad range of antitrust issues, including intellectual property and licensing issues, trade association law, the Hart Scott Rodino Act, and pricing and distribution issues. She has focused extensively on the telecommunications, media, digital technologies, chemicals, agriculture and healthcare/pharmaceuticals industries.
Currently, Ms. Thomas is involved in counseling clients on a broad range of merger control and joint venture issues, civil investigations, and multi-district litigation involving Section 1 claims. She participated on the trial team that successfully defended the Department of Justice’s challenge to the AT&T/Time Warner merger. She also advised DuPont in the proposed acquisition of Pannar Seed by Pioneer in South Africa, which was ultimately approved by South Africa's Competition Appeal Court and the Supreme Court of South Africa. She played a principal role in Cingular Wireless' acquisition of AT&T Wireless, SBC's acquisition of AT&T, and AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.
In her role with the E-Discovery practice, Ms. Thomas has managed many types of E-Discovery matters in both government investigations and civil litigation. She regularly counsels clients on Information Governance, including the development and application of effective information management policies, legal hold practices, and E-Discovery response plans. Ms. Thomas is a member of the Steering Committee for The Sedona Conference Working Group 6 on International Electronic Information Management, Discovery and Disclosure, and a participating member of Working Group 1 on Electronic Document Retention and Production and. She is co-chair of the Advisory Board of the Georgetown University Law Center Advanced Institute for E-Discovery. She regularly speaks and writes on U.S. and cross-border E-Discovery and data protection issues, and is a certified Information Privacy Professional, with a focus on European regulation (CIPP/E).
Throughout her career, Ms. Thomas has always maintained an active docket of pro bono representations. In the past, she has litigated post-conviction death penalty cases in Texas, Mississippi and Virginia in state and federal courts, and she currently represents individuals in post-conviction proceedings in Florida.
Ms. Thomas has been recognized by clients and peers as a top lawyer in Chambers USA in Antitrust, and in Chambers USA and Chambers Global in E-Discovery (Band 1). She has also been recognized by Super Lawyers as a leading antitrust litigation attorney.