M. Nicole Williams

As a business, securities and tax attorney, Nikki Williams concentrates her practice primarily on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, private placements of securities, flowthrough taxation and tax planning.

As a business, securities and tax attorney, Nikki Williams concentrates her practice primarily on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, private placements of securities, flowthrough taxation and tax planning.

Ms. Williams assists clients with a wide variety of business and tax matters ranging from the formation of corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and nonprofit entities to ongoing business issues, such as long-term strategic planning, equity financings, corporate governance, stockholder and operating agreements, equity option plans, and the sale, acquisition or reorganization of businesses. She also is experienced in securities matters, including the private placements of securities and federal and state securities filings under Regulation D.

Ms. Williams has extensive experience in most areas of business and commercial law. Major representative clients are in diverse industries, including transportation, telecommunications, health care, automotive and hospitality. A significant portion of her practice from late 2009 to the summer of 2010 involved working with the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General to negotiate and document the complex leasing of the APM Terminals container terminal located in Portsmouth, Virginia for a 20-year period and to acquire all of its operating assets and ship line contracts. The deal was valued in excess of $1 billion, and is hailed as the first of its kind, whereby a private terminal owner leased its underutilized facility to a port authority,
rather than the traditional model of port authorities leasing to terminal operators.

Ms. Williams is chair of the Recruiting Committee for the Virginia Beach office. She is a member of the firm’s Transportation & Logistics Industry Service Group, Private Equity Group, Mergers and Acquisitions Group and the Women’s Initiative. She is the head of Associate Education and Development for the Corporate Section.

Ms. Williams has been recognized by Virginia Business magazine as one of the “Legal Elite,” and named numerous times as one of the top up-and-coming lawyers in the state by Virginia Super Lawyers Rising Stars magazine. Inside Business named her one of the Top 40 Under 40 Class of 2009. She practices in the firm’s Virginia Beach, Virginia office and has been a member of the firm since 1998. Ms. Williams is a member of the Virginia Beach and Virginia bar associations and the Virginia State Bar. She currently serves on the board of trustees for the Virginia Aquarium and First Tee of Hampton Roads, the advisory board for the William & Mary Business Law Review and is a board member of Towne Leadership Alliance. She is a member of The Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Norfolk. Ms. Williams is a member of the finance committee for the American Association of Port Authorities.

Ms. Williams received her bachelor of business administration with a major in accounting from James Madison University, cum laude, in 1993 and her law degree from Marshall- Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in 1996.