Juan R. Thomas, Of Counsel at Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., has been appointed General Counsel of the Morehouse College National Alumni Association effective July 1, 2018. He is a 1992 graduate of Morehouse College and a past President of the Chicago Area Morehouse College Alumni Association. The mission of the Morehouse College National Alumni Association is to support and further the ideals and interests of Morehouse College, via varied programs by regional and local chapters throughout the world under the direction of the national headquarters. Currently, the Association has approximately 17,000 alumni and over 50 chapters around the country and throughout the globe.
December 21, 2018 Section News
Juan Thomas Appointed General Counsel of Morehouse College National Alumni Association
Thomas’s practice includes the following specialties: real estate/estate planning, labor and employment, and family law. In addition, Thomas provides counseling and training to firm clients in areas involving personnel, collective bargaining, and business development matters.
The National Black Lawyers: Top 100 includes Thomas on its list of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers, an honor given to only a select group of lawyers for their superior skills and qualifications in the field. Membership is by invitation only and is limited to the top 100 attorneys in each state or region who have demonstrated excellence and have achieved outstanding results in their careers. Thomas’s selection was based upon his performance as an exceptional lawyer in the practice area of matrimonial and family law in the state of Illinois.
Thomas’s passion is community and public service. While in law school, he successfully ran for the West Aurora School Board, and at age 25 became the youngest person elected and the first African American reelected to the Board, in 1999. He served as Chair of the Board’s Personnel Committee. He continues to serve his hometown of Aurora as a member of the A+ Foundation Board of Directors for West Aurora School District #129, which supports and promotes educational, cultural, and charitable programs for the students and alumni.
Thomas is the Immediate Past President of the National Bar Association (NBA), and previously served the NBA as Vice President and its National Secretary. He also served as Chair of the NBA Law & Religion Law Section, Chair of the NBA Political Action Committee, Vice-Chair of the NBA Legislative Division, and Co-Chair of the NBA Day on the Hill Program, where lawyers meet with members of Congress to advocate for the organization’s national legislative agenda. During the 2003–04 bar year, Thomas served as Chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the NBA. That year, the division received the NBA’s Outstanding Division of the Year Award.
Thomas currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mutual Ground Inc., an organization committed to providing services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and their families. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the University of Illinois College of Law Alumni Association and the Leadership Greater Chicago Fellows Association. Thomas has previously served on the boards of the Community Renewal Society, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, and the University of Illinois College of Education Board of Visitors.
Thomas has been featured in Who’s Who in Black Chicago, Ebony Magazine, and the Chicago Sun Times as a leader to watch in the twenty-first century. In 2011 and again in 2015, he was named Citizen of the Year by his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, Mu Xi Chapter, for his service and dedication to the community. He has received the NAACP, DuPage County Branch President’s Award both in 2013 and 2014, and was a 2014 recipient of the NAACP, DuPage County Branch Claude Audley Award of Leadership Excellence, for leadership and service to the community. Thomas has received five Presidential Service Awards from the National Bar Association in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2016 for his contributions to the field of law. In 2011, he was invited to become a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation because of his outstanding achievements in the legal profession. Thomas is a 2004 Fellow of the Harvard Divinity School Summer Leadership Institute and is a 2002 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow.
Thomas received his Juris Doctor and Master’s in Educational Policy degrees from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. In addition to his professional and civic involvement, Thomas is an ordained Baptist minister and recently completed his course work to receive a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago School of Divinity in Hyde Park. Thomas and his wife, Angela, are proud members of St. John AME Church in Aurora, where he serves as the minister for the men’s ministry. He can be contacted at jt@juanthomaslaw.com.