A necktie sits untouched on a side desk in Thomas Skinner’s first floor office in the LSU System office on West Lakeshore Drive in Baton Rouge.
It’s hideous. He’ll tell you as much. A jagged pattern poorly resembling a tiger’s claw marks run vertically, alternating between purple and gold down the fabric, with the familiar LSU “eye of the tiger” emblazoned near the bottom.
Skinner said he felt he needed to make a statement as a finalist for LSU System’s general counsel position late last year, but he hadn’t packed any purple or gold attire for the interview. He snagged the tie at the hotel gift shop and wore it to the interview.
A quick look at Skinner’s résumé and family pedigree suggests he didn’t need the tie to make a statement. His father, Samuel, was the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Chief of Staff for George H. W. Bush. His brother-in-law is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
But it’s the observations he’s made and experiences he’s lived that have guided Skinner to this point.
As Bush’s re-election campaign began to go south, Skinner’s father resigned as White House Chief of Staff in August 1992, replaced by White House veteran James Baker.
“That was, for my dad, a very difficult thing,” Skinner said. “He resigned voluntarily and moved over to the Republican National Committee, but it was not something he really wanted to do. You see it a lot in politics. They build you up and tear you back down.”
Skinner, then 30, saw the rigors of a political life. The beginning is a honeymoon, he said. After that comes the tearing down.
Perhaps no one has been torn down as much as Goodell, disparaged this season for his handling of the NFL’s growing list of abuse issues, with some calling for his resignation.
Skinner is close to his brother-in-law, speaking via email or phone at least twice a week. They often vacation in the summers, enjoying cigars, paddle-boarding and golfing — essentially anything to avoid talking about football. His demeanor may surprise some, Skinner said.
“People would be shocked, I think,” Skinner said. “He comes across as a very tough, straightforward, no BS [type of] guy. Part of that is true, but what you don’t see is the personal warmth he has. He’s one of the few people I can look you in the eye and say he’ll give you the shirt off his back. He is a genuinely warm individual.”
Skinner sees a side of Goodell most don’t, making the constant stream of vitriolic tweets, posts and assertions about him disheartening, though it comes with the territory of being such a public figure, he adds.
“I try not to let it bother me too much,” Skinner said. “On the other hand, I know some of it is grossly unfair, and that’s aggravating.
“I don’t think anyone’s feeling sorry for him, nor should they,” Skinner added. “He’s a guy who’s worked hard to get where he is, trying to do the best he can. He’s admitted when he’s been wrong, and I have no doubt given what I know about his work ethic and ethics in general, he’s going to be successful in the long run. It’s just a tough period right now.”
Few know his family’s notoriety. Skinner’s office has a few pictures and just one football sitting on a side table — ironically, deflated.
Skinner’s always felt drawn to education — his mother and grandmother were elementary school teachers, his grandfather a superintendent. Reading Pete Maravich’s biography in elementary school instantly drew the young sports fanatic to LSU.
Then a partner at Jones Day, an international law firm, Skinner began searching for general counsel jobs in 2014 and admits he almost jumped from his chair when the LSU position came across his computer screen.
“How many institutions, how many universities in the country are known by their abbreviation by their acronym,” Skinner said. “LSU is a national brand. It is a first-class institution in so many ways. It’s big enough that it presents a variety of challenges but it’s not so huge that it’s unmanageable.”
On the job since the first of the year, consider this Skinner’s honeymoon. Perception-wise, he’s on a smaller scale than his family members. Work-wise, it could be a different story.
Skinner makes a list of pending matters he needs to attend to. Twenty in all, none of which he can resolve with a simple phone call.
“In some ways, I would describe myself as a firefighter,” says Skinner. “These blazes pop up all over the place, and my job is to make sure we put the fires out. Whether I put it out personally or I assign our other lawyers to put the fires out.”

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Javier Fernández for Manship News Service

New LSU general counsel Thomas Skinner is using past experiences to adjust to his new job.