Athens, Ga. – Larry D. Thompson, former deputy attorney general for the United States Department of Justice, will be joining the University of Georgia School of Law this fall as the John A. Sibley Professor in Corporate and Business Law. Thompson, who recently announced his retirement from PepsiCo, will be teaching courses in the areas of corporate law and white collar crime.
“Larry has been a visiting professor and guest speaker at our law school several times in the last decade, and we are thrilled that he will now be joining us on a permanent basis,” Georgia Law Dean Rebecca Hanner White said. “To have someone with his experience and status on our faculty will benefit not only our students, but the law school and the university as a whole.”
While teaching a course on white collar crime at the law school during the spring of 2001, Thompson was confirmed as the second in command at the Department of Justice. As deputy attorney general, a post he held from 2001 to 2003, Thompson supervised the overall operations of the DOJ and led its National Security Coordination Council, its Corporate Fraud Task Force and its Enron investigation.
Then, in 2004, he became responsible for the worldwide legal function of PepsiCo, one of the largest convenient food and beverage companies in the world, where he served as senior vice president of government affairs, general counsel and secretary.
Previously, he was a partner in the Atlanta office of King & Spalding and served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, where he directed the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Thompson has received a variety of accolades for his work over the years including the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the DOJ’s mission and the Federal Bar Association’s Outstanding Litigator Award. He has also served as a Senior Fellow with The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Thompson earned his bachelor’s degree from Culver-Stockton College, his M.A. from Michigan State University and his law degree from the University of Michigan.
