June 4, 2024
New York, NY (June 4, 2024) --- Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP announced today that J. Holt Foster, III has joined the Firm as the Managing Partner of Willkie’s newly-launched Dallas office. Holt is a well-known market leader with a diverse practice and significant leadership experience. For more than 25 years, Holt has guided a wide range of clients on various types of transactions across the energy sector and other key industries. His arrival follows the recent launch of Willkie’s Dallas office and addition of Dallas-based private equity partners Tom Tippets, Brandon McCoy and Chase Proctor. Learn more about Willkie’s Dallas launch here.
Willkie Chairman Thomas Cerabino said: “Holt’s diverse practice, leadership skills and entrepreneurial spirit make him the ideal person to lead our new Dallas office. Holt is well known and highly respected in the Dallas market and beyond as a leading private equity and transactional lawyer with deep ties to the energy sector. We are delighted to welcome him to the Firm and excited for Willkie’s next chapter in Dallas with Holt at the helm.”
Holt’s practice focuses on private equity, venture capital and creative financings, mergers and acquisitions, fund formation and international transactions. He represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in the energy and infrastructure sectors, as well as on transactions across a variety of other industries including media and entertainment, technology and agriculture. In addition to his decades of legal experience, Holt is an entrepreneur. Early in his career, he co-founded and served as legal counsel to an international entertainment software publishing company, which was subsequently sold to a publicly traded company. He has received numerous accolades for his work across legal and business media, and is a frequent speaker and author on private equity and energy-related topics. Holt was most recently a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, where he served as co-leader of the firm’s global Energy practice team.
Holt commented: “I have long admired Willkie as a top international firm and have been impressed by its expansion nationally and here in Texas over the past several years. I am honored and excited to be leading Willkie’s Dallas office and look forward to further establishing Willkie’s presence in Dallas and the wider state of Texas. Willkie’s unique culture of entrepreneurialism, collaboration and commitment to excellence and the community are some of the many reasons why I was drawn to this opportunity, and I am committed to upholding these values as the leader of the Dallas office.”
Holt is the ninth lateral partner to join Willkie in Texas since the start of 2023.
Willkie’s Dallas office was launched in May 2024 and extends the Firm’s preeminent private equity, M&A, finance and asset management practices to a diverse array of clients located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Our team advises on corporate transactions, private equity, finance, restructuring, tax and additional transactional matters, and has significant experience in the energy, infrastructure, industrial, manufacturing, aviation, automotive, chemicals, real estate, technology and retail sectors.
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Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP provides leading-edge legal solutions on complex, business critical issues spanning markets and industries. Our approximately 1,200 attorneys across 15 offices worldwide deliver innovative, pragmatic and sophisticated legal services across approximately 45 practice areas. Learn more at www.willkie.com.
