Allen (Sandy) Williams is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP, where he is a member of the firm’s Transactional & Securities and Private Equity & Venture Capital Practices. Mr. Williams is also a member and was the founding chair of the Energy Industry Team and the Regulatory Department. He has been substantially involved in energy industry matters since 1972. Since 1985, Mr. Williams has concentrated his practice in the developing area of energy industry (re)regulation and strategic transactions carried out in that changing industry architecture.
Mr. Williams is a member of the Legal Committee of the Edison Electric Institute, the association of investor-owned utilities. He has also lectured on utility law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and has been involved throughout the development of the complex statutory and regulatory environment in various states that has spawned the independent power industry and is changing the architecture of the electric energy market.
Mr. Williams received his undergraduate degree, cum laude, in economics from Harvard University in 1966. In 1970, he received his law degree and his MBA from Columbia University. At Columbia University, he was a member of the board of editors of the Columbia Law Review and was a Samuel Bronfman fellow of the Business School. He acted as legal counsel to Wisconsin Governor Patrick J. Lucey from 1971 to 1973.
Mr. Williams has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system and was selected by his peers for inclusion in the current edition of The Best Lawyers of America® in the field of energy and environmental law.
A frequently requested speaker on various energy and financial market issues, Mr. Williams has appeared on MSNBC News, MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," FOX News "Special Report with Brit Hume," Bloomberg News, and CSPAN, talking about various issues related to the collapse of Enron and its potential implications for the energy industry and financial markets. Three recent articles authored by Mr. Williams include "The U.S. Utility Sector: What After California" published in the June 2001 edition of The Electricity Journal, "The Double-Edged Sword of Equating Supply and Demand" published in Volume 2 of The Utilities Project in November 2001 by Montgomery Research Institute, and "Calpine Ain't Enron" published in the April 2002 edition of The Electricity Journal.
Mr. Williams currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (member, 2004-present), was chairman of the board of trustees of the Medical College of Wisconsin from 1984-1987 (member, 1977-1997), and was chairman of the Milwaukee County Zoological Society board of directors from 1984-1986 (member, 1977-1989). He currently serves on the board of directors of Growing Power, Inc. and has in the past served on the boards of Legal Action of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Skylight Opera, and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.