Thomas A. Limehouse, Jr. is an experienced litigator, strategic advisor, and principled problem-solver for clients across various public and private sectors.

Prior to founding Limehouse LLC, Thomas served as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Henry Dargan McMaster—South Carolina's longest-serving Governor.  In this capacity, he was a member of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet and the principal legal advisor to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and senior staff on executive, legislative, and administrative matters.  Thomas also regularly represented Governor McMaster and his office in litigation, having appeared on his behalf in state and federal trial and appellate courts at virtually every level—from the South Carolina Circuit Court, South Carolina Court of Appeals, and the South Carolina Supreme Court to the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.  

Over the course of Thomas’s more than eight and a half years of service, in addition to managing the Governor’s litigation and in-house counsel and legal staff, Thomas worked with local, state, and federal officials and Cabinet agency leadership and counsel on a variety of matters involving the Governor’s interests and strategic initiatives, from conservation and environmental issues to maritime and emergency management matters.  As counsel to the State's Chief Executive, Thomas regularly collaborated with the State Inspector General and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division on investigative requests and was the Governor's principal liaison to the Office of the Attorney General and the State's Circuit Solicitors.  

Thomas's service also regularly involved advising Governor McMaster on a variety of nuclear- and energy-related issues as part of the Governor’s efforts to enhance South Carolina’s energy generation, distribution, and transmission resources to account for future increases in consumer demand and economic development.  Thomas also served as the Governor’s primary advisor on trade- and tariff-related matters, assisting the Governor in advocating for South Carolina businesses with federal officials, as well as before federal entities such as the Trade Policy Staff Committee and the International Trade Commission.  Following the Governor’s presidential appointment to the Council of Governors, Thomas served as a liaison to the Council, which is a bipartisan entity established to facilitate collaboration among state and federal officials on issues pertaining to homeland security, emergency management, the National Guard, and civil support missions.

Before joining the Office of the Governor in 2017, Thomas practiced with Duffy & Young, LLC in Charleston, South Carolina, where he represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of matters in state and federal courts, including commercial and securities litigation, trust and estate disputes, and complex class actions.  In 2016, he was selected by Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” in the field of business litigation. Before entering private practice, Thomas clerked for the Honorable Patrick Michael Duffy, Senior United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina.

Thomas received his law degree cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2013, where he served as Editor in Chief of the South Carolina Law Review and was selected by his classmates to receive the Claud Sapp Award for leadership, scholarship, and industry. Thomas graduated summa cum laude from the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina in 2010 with a B.A. in political science.

Thomas is a Permanent Member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the South Carolina Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.  In 2025, Governor McMaster designated Thomas as his representative to the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, and as such, Thomas serves as a member of the South Carolina Mining Council. He also serves as the Governor’s designee on the South Carolina Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, and he was appointed by Chief Justice John W. Kittredge as a member of the Chief Justice’s Commission on the Profession. Thomas and his wife, Emily, who is also an attorney, live in Mount Pleasant with their children and remain active in their hometown community.