August 30, 2021
New York, NY (August 30, 2021) --- Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced that John R. Thomas has joined the Firm as a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department, where he will be a member of the Energy and Commodities Group. He is based in the Firm’s New York office. Mr. Thomas was previously Managing Director and Senior Counsel for the Goldman Sachs Commodities Business, J. Aron & Company LLC.
Mr. Thomas has significant experience with sophisticated commodity and derivatives transactions across a broad spectrum of legal disciplines, including M&A, commodities and derivatives trading, secured and structured finance, and related corporate governance, regulatory and compliance matters. He has handled complex matters across multiple legal jurisdictions and cultures, including closing transactions with significant foreign jurisdictional elements in multiple countries.
“John is a talented and well-regarded practitioner in the commodities industry, known for his commercially-minded approach and successful track record closing cutting-edge sophisticated transactions, while balancing legal, commercial and reputational risks,” said Paul J. Pantano, Jr. a leader in Willkie’s commodities and derivatives practice.
Norman Bay, Co-Chair of the Energy and Commodities Group, commented: “His experience and perspective advising senior business executives and traders as the senior in-house counsel will greatly enhance the structuring and legal risk management advice that we can provide to Willkie’s broad client base. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Firm.”
In his role at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Thomas acted as functional general counsel for the Goldman Sachs global commodities business, providing legal and strategic advice for all aspects of the business. He managed trading and other transactional matters, and oversaw corporate governance, litigation, regulatory and compliance matters, bankruptcy matters, employee issues, and real property matters. He also previously served as General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer for an investment company focusing on acquiring North American energy infrastructure assets, and was counsel at Shearman and Sterling LLP.
Mr. Thomas commented: “Willkie’s interdisciplinary approach to advising energy and commodities companies, and deep bench of talent across its transactional and regulatory practices is highly regarded in many markets and is a great fit for my practice. I look forward to contributing to the Firm’s growing work in this area.”
Willkie’s market-leading capabilities in energy and commodities matters are bolstered by an integrated team of regulatory, M&A, litigation, fund formation, finance and restructuring attorneys with in-depth knowledge of and deep experience in the sector. Our team also includes former senior officials from the CFTC, FERC, DOJ and SEC. Willkie’s energy and commodities lawyers represents energy companies, utilities, swap dealers, commodity traders, financial institutions, agribusinesses, industry associations, development-stage ventures, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in a wide range of commodity and derivatives transactional, regulatory and enforcement defense matters.
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Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is an international law firm of approximately 850 attorneys with offices in New York, Washington, Houston, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Chicago, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Brussels, Milan and Rome. The Firm is headquartered in New York City at 787 Seventh Avenue.
Tel: 212.728.8000.
