John P. Williams
John P. Williams
Managing Partner
JPW@duncanallen.com
Duncan & Allen
1575 Eye Street NW, Ste 300
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: 202-289-8400
Fax: 202-289-8450
» Managing Partner
John began his professional career as a securities lawyer in New York City, and has
practiced energy and natural resources law with Duncan & Allen since 1985. The focus
of his energy practice is primarily the public power segment of the electric power
industry in the United States; while the focus of his natural resources practice
is primarily international and consists of advisory services to governments and
institutions in the development of policy, law, regulations and standard contract
provisions governing hard rock mining, as well as representation of public and private
clients in negotiations and dispute resolution related to natural resource development.
Since 1989, John has advised The World Bank and governments in South America, Africa
and Asia on the modernization of the legal framework for mining including the related
tax, investment and environmental law and regulations, and stability agreements.
He assisted the governments of Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar
and Mongolia in developing their current mining laws and regulations; and has also
been an international mining law advisor to the governments of Angola, Nigeria and
Saudi Arabia.
In the United States, John represents and advises municipalities, electric cooperatives,
project developers and related entities in connection with:
- the formation, structuring
and financing of entities and joint ventures for power supply development, acquisition
and delivery, including electric municipalizations;
- contract negotiation, implementation
and enforcement, including resolution of disputes through negotiation, arbitration
and litigation; and
- federal, state and local regulation of electric utility
matters and related natural resource utilization, including representation in administrative
and judicial proceedings and advice on new legislative and regulatory developments.
John has been instrumental in obtaining precedent-setting orders from the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concerning the status of power marketers and transmission
access conditions for electric utility mergers. He guided Kanab City, Utah through
its municipalization in the late 1980s and, in the 1990s, advised a variety of entities
in eastern and western states (including Palm Springs, California and the Oneida
Indian Nation of New York) on strategies for obtaining access to competitive power
supply markets through municipalization.
Prior to joining Duncan & Allen, John was associated with the law firm of Sullivan
& Cromwell in New York City and Paris, France from 1979 to 1985, where he worked
extensively with the finance ministries of Finland and France, as well as several
French state owned enterprises, and various international commercial banks and major
U.S. investment banks on domestic and international financings. During this period,
he also served as special counsel to the Bermuda insurance subsidiary of a major
oil company and assisted with the law firm's general representation of a Swedish
mining company and a multinational mining joint venture in Africa, as well as a
Mexican producer of petroleum drilling pipe.
Prior to commencing law school, John served from 1972 to 1975 as a Peace Corps Volunteer
in Senegal (technical advisor on human resource development projects) and Zaire
(leader of regional smallpox eradication team). In law school, John received the
1976 Stillman Prize for the best brief in the first year Moot Court competition
and served as an editor, then senior editor, of the N.Y.U. Moot Court Board.
John was one of the two most highly recommended project finance lawyers in a survey
of over 500 lawyers around the world by the International Financial Law Review,
as reported in its September 1986 issue. He has made numerous presentations on mining
law issues at international conferences on five continents, and has spoken on a
variety of electric utility related subjects and issues at conferences in the United
States.
John is the author of "Wheeling & Dealing: FERC's Evolving Approach to Electric Utility
Mergers", published in the August/September 1989 edition of the Electricity Journal,
as well as numerous studies of international mining, investment and tax laws for
The World Bank. He is a co-author of four books on international developments in
mining law published by The World Bank and Mining Journal Books Ltd between 1996
and 2003.
John speaks and works in English, French and Spanish. He also speaks Swahili and
Wolof, and can read and understand Portuguese.
- Bar Admissions
- New York
- District of Columbia
- United States Court of Federal Claims
- United States Court of International Trade
- United States Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Education
- Harvard University (A.B. (Government), 1971)
- Princeton University (M.P.A. (Economics), 1978)
- New York University (J.D. 1979)
- Professional Associations and Memberships
- American Bar Association
- International Energy and Resources Committee of the ABA’s Section of the Environment,
Energy and Resources (former Chair)
- ABA Section of International Law and Practice, Member
- Energy Bar Association
- International Bar Association
- Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation
- Past Employment Positions
- Sullivan & Cromwell, in New York City and Paris, France (1979 to 1985)
- Languages
- English
- French
- Spanish
- Swahili
- Wolof
- Portuguese