William L. Thomas Of Counsel MAIN OFFICE: Washington Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 1875 K Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006-1238, U.S.A. T 202-303-1210 F 202-303-2210

William L. Thomas is of counsel in the Environment, Health and Safety Department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Washington. Mr. Thomas advises companies, financiers, developers and other enterprises on environmental law matters, including transactions, projects, and formulation of management and legal compliance strategy. He also handles litigation and disputes involving environmental, health and safety concerns, as well as climate change and other matters of international environmental law and policy.

Mr. 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 EHS legal regimes and related international standards and codes of conduct, and legal aspects of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Mr. Thomas is highly regarded in the area of climate change, including climate law and policy and carbon finance. Specific experience in this emerging field 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, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol (e.g., Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation processes) 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 (2011) and Chambers Global (2012) rank Mr. Thomas among the leading individuals practicing in the areas of Environmental Law and Climate Change. He has also been recognized for his expertise in these areas in The Best Lawyers in America, The International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers and PLC 's Which Lawyer? Handbook. Additionally, he has been honored with election as a Fellow in both the American College of Environmental Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation.

Mr. Thomas 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.

Mr. Thomas serves as a member of several other bodies, including the board of directors of The Climate Group, the Advisory Committee to the Carbon Disclosure Standards Board, the U.S. Advisory Council to the Carbon Disclosure Project and the external Advisory Board to both the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise and the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Thomas 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.

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

Mr. Thomas’ 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, Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law & Policy, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, and Environmental Liability.