Thomas R. Frantz

Tom Frantz draws on his tax background and maintains a robust corporate legal practice as a partner representing multi-national corporations, handling major mergers and acquisitions and advising corporations on a variety of legal matters. In addition, he is actively engaged in regional and statewide issues across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

He currently serves as Williams Mullen's chairman emeritus of the board, and he previously served as president and chief executive officer of the firm from 2010 to 2015. Before joining the firm, Tom was an original principal with Clark & Stant, which merged with Williams Mullen in 1999. He currently serves on the board of DroneUp, a leading drone flight services provider, and on the board of Miller Oil Company, D/B/A Miller Energy, a retail and wholesale gasoline, fuel, oil distribution and heating and air conditioning company. He is admitted before the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and all Virginia courts.

Tom is a member of the American College of Tax Counsel, the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel, the Virginia Bar Association’s Taxation Section, the American Association of Attorney-CPAs, the Virginia Society of CPAs and the American Academy of Hospital Attorneys. He is also a member of the Corporate, Banking and Business Law, Taxation and Health Care Sections of the American Bar Association. He is a past president of the Hampton Roads Tax Forum and is a director of the William & Mary Annual Tax Conference.

Tom has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America®  each year since 1983 and was named the Best Lawyers®  2011 Norfolk Area Corporate Lawyer of the Year and 2012 Norfolk Area Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year. He has also been named to Virginia Business magazine’s list of “Legal Elite” (2008-present), recognized as a leading Corporate/M&A attorney in the U.S. by Chambers USA (2004-2018), listed as a “Super Lawyer” for Business/Corporate by Virginia Super Lawyers magazine (2006-present) and listed as one of the Top Lawyers of Coastal Virginia by CoVa Biz Magazine (2017-present). Virginia Super Lawyers magazine listed him as one of the "Top 50 Attorneys in Virginia" every year from 2006 to 2011, in 2008 he was listed as one of the “Top 10 Attorneys in Virginia” and named to Inside Business's "Power List" (2014-present), Emeritus (2022). In addition, Martindale-Hubbell has rated Tom an AV attorney, its highest rating available.

Long active in numerous civic and educational organizations, Tom serves as co-chair of RVA-757 Connects, and serves on its board and executive committee. Tom also serves on the board of directors and on the executive committee of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable. He is a longtime board member of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.  He also serves as Go Virginia's District 5 Regional Council Chair. He was appointed by Governor Mark Warner to the Hampton Roads Sports Facility Authority in 2003 and was honored by the Virginia Beach Jaycees as the 2004 First Citizen of Virginia Beach. In 2010, he received the VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads’ Lenora Mathews Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding leadership in community service. Tom was also honored by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce with the First Citizen of Hampton Roads Award in 2022.

Tom is the former chair of the Mayor of the City of Virginia Beach’s Biomedical and Healthcare Taskforce, and he is a former chairman of the board of Cape Henry Collegiate School, the Virginia Beach Foundation, the Hampton Roads Partnership, and the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center Foundation. Tom is a director emeritus of the Neptune Festival, and he served as King Neptune in 1996.

He served on the College of William & Mary's Board of Visitors from 2011-2019. In addition, Tom served on the board and executive committee of the Mason School of Business Foundation at the College of William & Mary, and he is an emeritus member of that board. He serves on the advisory board of the William & Mary Business Law Review.

Tom graduated from the College of William & Mary with an accounting degree in 1970 and from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1973. He obtained his license as a Certified Public Accountant in 1973 and received his Masters in law and taxation from William & Mary in 1981. He is a former Captain in the U.S. Army.