G. William Speer is the senior partner in the Firm's Business & Finance practice group. He concentrates in securities, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate law.

In his more than 45 years of concentration in these areas, Mr. Speer has guided hundreds of clients through the process of "going public" via an initial public offering, as well as advised companies that are already publicly-owned regarding secondary offerings or private placements of equity or debt securities and complying with public disclosure requirements and other laws and regulations administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Mr. Speer also concentrates in mergers and acquisitions, having handled hundreds of acquisitions, for both buyers and sellers, including strategic acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and hostile takeovers for both publicly and privately owned businesses. He has also advised companies in defending against undesired takeover attempts and with respect to "going private" transactions.

He has also represented many national and regional investment banking firms in various transactions involving securities offerings, acquisitions and other transactions.

In addition, Mr. Speer is a partner of the Firm principally responsible for the day-to-day representation of a number of public and privately owned clients, assisting them in all areas and coordinating services provided to such clients by other attorneys in our Firm. Having served on the Board of Directors of several public companies and having regularly attended meetings of the Board of Directors and committees of numerous clients, he is well equipped to provide advice to a company's Board of Directors with respect to corporate governance matters and in its management of a company's affairs. He has also been engaged to advise special committees of Board of Directors in acquisitions, conflict of interest situations and other transactions.

Mr. Speer is a frequent lecturer in the areas of securities law, mergers and acquisitions and legal opinions.