A Raleigh native, Tom Cannon graduated from Needham Broughton High School and thereafter attended the University of North Carolina as a Morehead Scholar, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1962. He received his law degree there in 1965.

He enjoyed a successful family law practice in Charlotte for 45 years, the last ten as a partner with Horack, Talley, Pharr & Lowndes, and continues his affiliation with that firm. He served on the Mecklenburg County Bar’s Executive Committee from 1982-86, and as a member of its various family law committees for a number of years.

For more than 30 years Mr. Cannon has lectured at continuing legal education seminars sponsored by various providers, including the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the Mecklenburg County Bar Association. He was a lecturer at the Bar Association’s Practical Skills Course for new lawyers each year from 1977 – 2009, and at its Basics of Family Law Course from 1984 - 2008. He served on the State Bar Committee which licenses Family Law Specialists from 1987 – 1993, and chaired the Bar Association’s Family Law Section in 1982-83. He has tried cases in more than 30 counties throughout North Carolina, and has appeared before the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court in more than 40 cases. He is a certified arbitrator.

Mr. Cannon served in the United States Naval Reserve for 20 years, the first six as an intelligence officer, and thereafter in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Mr. Cannon has been honored by Best Lawyers in America with his inclusion in 2011 in its select directory for the sixteenth consecutive year. He has been identified by Law and Politics Magazine as a North Carolina “Super Lawyer” in Family Law 2006 – 2011. He is a Board Certified Specialist in Family Law and a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.