Tom Johnson has more than 30 years' experience representing clients throughout North Carolina on a broad range of commercial real estate matters, particularly planning, zoning and land use issues. Tom combines his legal practice experience with tools he gained as a former city council member in Greenville, N.C. to help clients navigate the real estate development process. He assists clients with the permitting of large, multi-use commercial developments, hotels and residential developments. He has significant experience in the telecommunications industry, where he helps wireless telecommunications providers develop tower sites and wireless networks throughout North Carolina.

Tom's experience includes the preparation of purchase and sale agreements; negotiating and closing loan transactions; the preparation of commercial leases for retail and office space; and related matters. He assists clients in finding and acquiring sites and navigating the regulatory approval process, and represents clients before city and county boards throughout North Carolina on rezoning petitions; applications for special use permits; variances; issuance of certificates of appropriateness in historic districts; and litigation involving the application of zoning ordinances.

Tom is a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Real Property Law (Business, Commercial, Industrial and Residential Transactions), and he is a founding member and past chair of the North Carolina Bar Association's Zoning, Planning and Land Use Section. He also serves a member of the Raleigh Chamber Board of Advisors and Economic Development Board and is on the board of directors of the Triangle Community Coalition. He is a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) per the U.S. Green Building Council.

Tom is listed in North Carolina Super Lawyers for real estate law (2017-2023) and land use/zoning (2024), along with being listed in the Top 100 North Carolina Super Lawyers list (2022) and the Top 25 Raleigh Super Lawyers list (2022). He was also listed in The Best Lawyers in America© for Real Estate Law (2021-present) and as a leading individual in real estate law by Chambers USA (2014-present). In 2014, North Carolina Lawyers Weekly recognized him as a "Leader in the Law."

He earned both his Juris Doctor degree and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina.