William L. Thomas is Counsel and Chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s Environment, Health and Safety Practice Group. He advises companies, financiers, developers and other enterprises on environmental law and policy, including transactions, projects and management and legal compliance strategy. He also handles litigation and disputes involving environmental, health and safety concerns.

Thomas regularly counsels clients on matters with a foreign or global environmental dimension, including risks and opportunities arising under regional and international environmental agreements, emerging legal regimes and related international standards and codes of conduct, and legal aspects of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

He is highly regarded in the area of climate change, including climate law and policy and carbon finance. His experience includes conducting greenhouse gas (GHG) due diligence, applying carbon and other environmental standards and drafting and negotiating related provisions in transactional and financing documents in connection with mergers, acquisitions, financing of projects and other ventures. He also advises clients on international, federal and state GHG regimes and initiatives and counsels companies, utilities and financiers on emissions-trading activities, GHG emission reduction projects, voluntary carbon market issues and matters of carbon strategy and governance, including policies, management systems, disclosure and offsetting efforts.

Chambers USA (2016) and Chambers Global (2016) have ranked Thomas nationally and internationally among the leading individuals practicing in the areas of transactional environmental law and climate change. He has also been recognized for his experience in these areas in The Best Lawyers in America, The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers, PLC ‘s Which Lawyer? Handbook, and Super Lawyers (D.C.). He is Fellow in both the American College of Environmental Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation.

He earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from St. Olaf College.