Thomas P. "Toby" Welch, Jr. is a 1999 graduate of the University of Mississippi with degrees in English and History. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi Law School in 2002 and was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in September of 2002.

He was admitted to the United States District Courts of both the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi as well as the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 2008. Mr. Welch has been practicing law since 2002 focusing mainly in the field of criminal law.

He spent three years in the general practice of law in which he had numerous felony trials encompasing the most serious felonies in Mississippi law, in addition to hundreds of other criminal cases. He left private practice in 2005 in order to become a Senior Attorney for the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN). In his four years with MBN, he handled hundreds of forfeiture cases for the State of Mississippi as well as wiretap investigations and assisted on numerous search warrants. In 2007, he was appointed a Special Assistant Attorney General in which he handled prosecutions of drug offenses. He left MBN in 2009 and opened the Law Office of Thomas P. Welch, Jr, in which he has tried and handled hundreds of criminal cases, misdemeanor and felony.

He became a partner in Sumrall & Welch in 2016.