William Gay
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William Tolin Gay is a corporate lawyer in the Los Angeles, Seattle, and Orange County offices of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker. He graduated from the University of Washington, where he received his J.D. in 1982, his MBA in 1983, and his LL.M. in Japanese law in 1984.
From 1984 to 1988, he practiced law in Tokyo, where he represented U.S. companies in their Japanese operations and Japanese issuers and underwriters in Eurobond securities issues. He speaks and reads Japanese.
Since 1988, he has worked in Southern California, where his practice focuses on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, cannabis, immigrant investors, and technology transfers. He is a California-certified mediator. He has represented a Major League Baseball player from Japan, a high-end audio manufacturer in Japan, the Government of Mongolia in its wind power and water purification initiatives, a Japanese pachinko company in its investment in a casino and hotel in Las Vegas, and the Casamigos tequila company in its sale to Diageo. In the cannabis and hemp industry, he currently represents growers, processors, and retailers, as well as landlords in all stages of cultivation, production, and sale.
He is the past Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Law and Immigration Section of the California Lawyers Association, has served on the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California. Additionally, William is a former Chair of the same organization's Committee on Cyberspace Law and a former Board Member and President of the Corporate and Business Law Section of the Orange County Bar Association. He has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© for 2006 through 2023. In 2009 he was named the Best Lawyers' “Lawyer of the Year” for Corporate Law in Orange County. He received the same honor in 2013 in the field of Corporate Governance and again in 2015 for Mergers and Acquisitions.
