Bill Klein serves as the Deputy General Counsel for the firm. Bill also served as Hopkins Carley’s Managing Shareholder and President for more than 15 years.

He is a highly respected litigator, advisor and mediator who assists clients with a broad range of contract and related disputes, as well as environmental matters, including:

  • Environmental private cost recovery and damage actions involving multi-party and citizen-suit litigation
  • Counseling and litigation under CERCLA (Superfund) and related state and local laws
  • Contract disputes involving environmental liabilities
  • Environmental due diligence and contract negotiations for the sale and leasing of contaminated sites
  • Environmental insurance coverage disputes

Bill also counsels clients on environmental matters pending before federal, state and local administrative agencies.

Bill was the Chair for the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce during the time it bought its headquarters. He was also the General Counsel for the local repertory theatre during their successful capital drive and construction of a new theater.

Areas of Focus

Services

Sectors

Experience

  • Assisted a client in structuring and establishing several real estate joint ventures to finance and develop major industrial real estate projects in the Minneapolis and Denver metropolitan areas.
  • Assisted dealers in forming a limited liability company to operate an equipment auction business, overseeing the structuring and recapitalization valued at over $14 million.
  • Drafted organizational documents for partnerships owning and/or operating professional sports businesses.

  • Guided a large family-owned Midwestern equipment distribution business through a significant change in succession planning from one child to another, collaborating closely with the family and the manufacturer.
  • Managed the restructuring of related private equity funds with an aggregate value exceeding $150 million to establish a legacy, evergreen fund with no time-limited horizon, including liquidating interests of investors opting out and merging two pre-existing equity funds and their portfolio companies into the new structure.
  • Represented limited liability company members in successfully defending an IRS assessment of more than $3 million in self-employment tax.
  • Represented sellers in a $250+ million stock sale involving 60 S corporations operating a highly regulated business across more than 25 states.
  • Structured several private equity investment funds and represented investors in evaluating private equity and hedge fund investments.
  • Supported a large institutional investor in structuring and implementing multiple fund-of-one investments.

Credentials

Education

  • Santa Clara University School of Law (J.D.)
  • California State University - Sacramento (B.S.)

Admissions

Bar Admissions

  • California, 1985

Professional Activities

  • American Bar Association
  • Santa Clara County Bar Association

Community Activities

  • Uplift Family Services, Board Member
  • Good Karma Bikes, Co-Founder and Former Board Member
  • San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, Former Legal Counsel and Past Board Chair