William L. Thomas

Prior to joining Willkie, Bill was with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and was Americas Environment Head for Clifford Chance LLP.

Bill is a member of the American Bar Association’s Sections on Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER) and International Law (SIL), having previously served on the governing Council for both sections, as well as past Chair of the International Environmental Law committees of both SEER and SIL. He is also a member of the International Bar Association, the American Society of International Law, and the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law.

Bill serves as a member of several other bodies, including the Strategic Advisory Counsel of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise (a partnership between the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan), the External Advisory Board of the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, the Advisory Committee to the Carbon Disclosure Standards Board, and the U.S. Advisory Council to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Bill appears frequently at national and international conferences, and is a widely published author on environmental law, policy and related matters of corporate strategy. In 2007, he served as Chair of ABA SEER's annual Conference on Environmental Law in Keystone, Colorado. In 2016, Bill was selected to serve on Law360’s Environmental Editorial Advisory Board.

Bill’s body of published work includes contributions to the Cross-Border Environment Handbook (PLC 2010/11), Stumbling Toward Sustainability (John Dernbach ed., ELI 2002), and Environmental Law and Enforcement in the Asia-Pacific Rim (Terri Mottershead ed., Sweet & Maxwell 2002).

Bill's articles on environmental issues have appeared in The National Law Journal, Natural Resources & Environment, Review of European Community & International Environmental Law, The International Lawyer, International Financial Law Review, Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, BNA's Environmental Law Reporter, European Environmental Law Review, Corporate Environmental Strategy, Project Finance International, Carbon Business and Environmental Finance, among others. He also serves on several editorial advisory boards, including those of BNA's Environmental Due Diligence Guide, Carbon & Climate Law Review, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, and Environmental Liability.

• Brookfield Business Partners in its acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company

• Mueller Industries, Inc. in its acquisition of ATCO Rubber products

• CapStreet Group in its acquisition of CRS Texas

• Safe Fleet Holdings LLC, a portfolio company of long-term private equity sponsor client The Sterling Group, in its sale to Oak Creek Capital Partners

• W&W|AFCO Steel in its acquisition of Hirschfeld Industries

• Alleghany Capital Corporation in its majority investment in W&W|AFCO Steel

• Meadow Partners and Trammell Crow Company (TCC) in their joint acquisition of an 80 percent condominium interest in the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Building, located at 888 16th Street, NW in downtown Washington, DC.

• Dubin Clark & Company, Inc. in series of acquisitions of U.S. based event rental and productions companies

• FFL Partners in acquisition of Icynene, Inc., an international producer and supplier of residential and commercial foam insulation products

• FFL Partners in its acquisition of Iracore, a manufacturer of specialized industrial pipes for the oilfield industry

• Calvert Street Capital Partners in its sale of IOS Holdings, a U.S. oilfield inspection and services business, to LB Foster

• Mueller Industries, Inc. and Atlas Holdings LLC in the acquisition of Tecumseh Products