William L.D. Barrett is Of Counsel to Butzel Long, practicing in the firm’s New York office. He graduated from Harvard Law School (LLB, 1963) and Yale University (B.A., 1960). Mr. Barrett has extensive experience in the areas of Alternate Dispute Resolution, Mutual Funds, Corporate Law, and Securities Litigation in which he has practiced since 1963.
Mr. Barrett has served as chair or sole arbitrator on more than 200 commercial, construction and international cases. These multi-million dollar disputes have involved marketing and development of pharmaceutical products and high technology medical products, telecommunications, financing, oil transportation and exploration, technical and dot.com matters, advertising, franchising, licensing of brands and intellectual property; management of New York City office buildings, real estate syndication and financing, acquisitions, valuation of companies in the airline, software, pharmaceutical and other industries, acquisition of a major mortgage servicing company, patents, insurance and reinsurance, securities and hedge fund cases and executive employment; class action arbitration, including health care providers and real estate development, construction cases involving the Pittsburgh subway system, construction of a steel mill and pulp mill, renovations of multi-floor interior spaces in New York office buildings, soils and excavation projects and electrical contracting for mass transit projects. He is a member of the AAA roster of neutrals and of the panel of arbitrators in the International Centre for Dispute Resolution.
William L.D. Barrett is Of Counsel to Butzel Long, practicing in the firm’s New York office. He graduated from Harvard Law School (LLB, 1963) and Yale University (B.A., 1960). Mr. Barrett has extensive experience in the areas of Alternate Dispute Resolution, Mutual Funds, Corporate Law, and Securities Litigation in which he has practiced since 1963.
Mr. Barrett has served as chair or sole arbitrator on more than 200 commercial, construction and international cases. These multi-million dollar disputes have involved marketing and development of pharmaceutical products and high technology medical products, telecommunications, financing, oil transportation and exploration, technical and dot.com matters, advertising, franchising, licensing of brands and intellectual property; management of New York City office buildings, real estate syndication and financing, acquisitions, valuation of companies in the airline, software, pharmaceutical and other industries, acquisition of a major mortgage servicing company, patents, insurance and reinsurance, securities and hedge fund cases and executive employment; class action arbitration, including health care providers and real estate development, construction cases involving the Pittsburgh subway system, construction of a steel mill and pulp mill, renovations of multi-floor interior spaces in New York office buildings, soils and excavation projects and electrical contracting for mass transit projects. He is a member of the AAA roster of neutrals and of the panel of arbitrators in the International Centre for Dispute Resolution.
Mr. Barrett is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators. He has written about arbitration subjects and has been a speaker at bar association and arbitration events. Most recently, he presented “Managing E-Discovery in Arbitration” for the New York City Bar Association and, in 2007, he presented “Writing Awards in Arbitration” for the Dispute Resolution Section of the ABA. Mr. Barrett has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association and of its Executive Committee and was Chair of its Finance Committee. He also chaired the Greater New York Advisory Council for Large Complex Cases. Mr. Barrett was awarded the Whitney North Seymour medal for distinguished service to arbitration.
Mr. Barrett is experienced in the handling of mutual funds. Since 1988, he has represented the mutual funds in the Aquila Group of Funds, which now comprise 12 funds with aggregate assets of $4.8 billion. In addition to providing counsel to the independent trustees of these funds, Mr. Barrett’s work has focused on preparation of the documents required by the SEC, registration statements, prospectuses and proxy statements. Mr. Barrett also has substantial experience in Corporate and Securities. He handled the legal work on the acquisition program of Ligget & Myers, aimed at diversifying the tobacco business, and led the team in the negotiation of the acquisitions and related securities matters.
Mr. Barrett is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York as well as the American Bar Association. He has been admitted to practice in New York since 1964 and is admitted to the U.S Court of Appeals, Second Circuit and U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.