Thomas O. Walker II is an employment attorney whose career has been defined by the intersection of federal employment law and national security. With more than a decade of service in senior legal roles with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Thomas has litigated dozens of employment, criminal, and national security cases and has advised government leaders on sensitive employment, national security, security clearance, insider risk, intelligence oversight, and privacy matters. His experience provides clients with a unique understanding of how federal agencies approach personnel actions, workplace investigations, security clearance adjudications, and insider risk matters, allowing him to effectively navigate complex employment disputes.

 

At KCNF, Thomas represents federal and private sector employees in employment matters involving discrimination, retaliation, disciplinary actions, and other workplace disputes.

 

Before joining KCNF, Thomas served as Assistant Staff Advisory Attorney for Navy Installations Command, advising a three-star admiral and senior leadership responsible for all Navy bases worldwide on security, privacy, FOIA, ethics, procurement, and employment law issues.

 

Thomas also served as a Privacy and Administrative Law Attorney with the U.S. Navy Office of the Judge Advocate General at the Pentagon, where he adjudicated disability appeals, coordinated Privacy Act and FOIA matters, and served as interim Branch Chief overseeing a multidisciplinary legal team.

 

Prior to that, as an Employment and Security Oversight Attorney with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Thomas litigated numerous federal discrimination and adverse employment action cases before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Merit Systems Protection Board; advised senior management on employment actions, discrimination claims, grievances, and workplace investigations; helped establish the agency’s insider risk program; and advised on intelligence oversight matters.

 

Earlier in his career, Thomas served as a prosecutor with the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, where he litigated complex terrorism cases involving classified information and national security issues, including trying portions of six cases, leading Classified Information Procedures Act litigation, and securing a final conviction and sentence for an al Qaeda affiliate guilty of the attempted assassination of the president of Pakistan and providing material support to an al Qaeda affiliate group’s 2003 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. He also served as a criminal defense counsel with the U.S. Navy, securing multiple case dismissals through litigation and negotiations and trying 18 bench cases and five contested jury trials while representing service members in cases throughout the United States and overseas. In recognition of his advocacy and leadership, he was named the Navy’s Defense Service Office Pacific Counsel of the Year in 2018.

 

In addition, Thomas served as a General Attorney with the U.S. Navy Region Legal Service Office Mid-Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia, where he tried 40 employment cases and advised hundreds of servicemembers on employment, criminal, and family law matters.

 

In total, over his 12 years as an attorney, Thomas has advised almost 1,000 clients on legal matters and has litigated to completion over 100 cases, 75 of which were employment cases.

 

Thomas earned his J.D. and an International Law Certificate from Tulane University Law School, where he was elected Class President and won the school’s Appellate Moot Court competition. He also received his B.A. from Tulane University, majoring in International Relations with minors in Middle Eastern and African History and French.

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