Thomas Baxter

Willkie recently secured the dismissal of a securities class action against Generac Holdings, Inc. (Generac), its CEO and its CFO in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.  The lawsuit stemmed from a nearly 25% single-day drop in the company’s stock price. On February 3, 2026, Chief Judge Pamela Pepper issued an order granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss, and entered judgment dismissing the entire case.  The court agreed with Willkie’s clients and found that the lead plaintiff’s amended complaint failed to plead that any of the defendants had made a material misstatement to investors with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth. Generac, an NYSE-listed Fortune 1000 company, manufactures and sells backup power generation equipment, portable generators, energy storage systems, and other energy products serving the residential, commercial and industrial markets.  In early 2020, after “shelter-in-place” orders took effect in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Generac experienced a significant spike in demand for its home standby generators. On August 2, 2023, during its quarterly report to investors, Generac reported lower-than-expected sales, explaining that the company was facing a weaker-than-expected demand environment and that this was expected to persist in the second half of the year, thus contributing to Generac’s lower outlook for residential product sales during the remainder of the year.  Generac’s stock price fell more than $37 per share that day. In response, in November 2023, a purported Generac shareholder filed a putative securities class action against Generac, its CEO and its CFO in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.  In April 2024, after the court appointed a lead shareholder plaintiff and transferred the case to the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the lead plaintiff filed an amended complaint.  The amended complaint challenged a dozen public statements made by Generac’s CEO and CFO, alleged violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC Rule 10b-5, and sought recovery for a class of Generac shareholders for hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged damages associated with the August 2, 2023 stock price decline.  In June 2024, the defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint. After the motion was fully briefed, securities litigation partner Glenn K. Vanzura argued the motion to dismiss during a lengthy hearing before Chief Judge Pepper in early 2025.  On February 3, 2026, the court issued its ruling granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss and entered judgment dismissing the entire case. The Willkie team was led by securities litigation partner Glenn K. Vanzura.

Feb 12

2 min

Willkie represented MyPower, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. and provider of industrial solutions for global climate change, in its sale of Solstice Power Technologies LLC to Perch Energy, a community solar servicer. On February 18, the sale of Solstice, a leading service provider specializing in customer acquisition and management for community solar development, was announced. Founded in 2015, Solstice connects households and small and large businesses to community solar farms that reduce their electric bills with no upfront cost or installation. Solstice also offers Community Benefit RECs, which aggregate corporate renewable energy purchases to fund new clean energy projects, workforce development, and environmental justice initiatives. Solstice's solutions align the needs of subscribers, asset owners, and corporate buyers to drive strong participation, community impact, long-term performance, and scalable growth in community solar. Perch and Solstice will combine their platforms to serve over 86 solar project owners in both mature and emerging community solar markets across the nation. The Willkie team was led by partners Archie Fallon and Ray LaSoya, and counsel Noah G. Goodman, and included associates Amirali Agha-Khan and Rachel Hudson.

Feb 23

1 min

Willkie, Farr & Gallagher has completed its office renovation and moved into its expanded space in Century City this week. The newly renovated office, located at 2029 Century Park East, spans 85,000 square feet across the 27th to 29th floors, with potential plans to take over a fourth floor to accommodate growing lawyer head count, according to Los Angeles managing partner Alex Weingarten. The firm was previously operating out of a temporary office on the 34th floor of the building. "We secured our ‘forever home,’ as I like to call it, and we continue to grow,” Weingarten said in an interview. “We quickly needed to add a third floor, just because of the growth, and we are now discussing and have had discussions with the landlord about a fourth floor, which we have right of first refusal on, and I anticipate we’ll be starting to build that out later this year.” Willkie launched in Los Angeles’ prominent west-side destination for law firms in September 2021, after acquiring three lawyers from Venable’s LA outpost. The firm's Century City office is now home to about 115 lawyers, 40 of whom are partners. “We have been growing across many practice areas in LA with a focus on quality over quantity and our plan is for that to continue,” Weingarten explained. “We are not growing to a particular number, but our focus is on organic and opportunistic growth and client demand,” with a focus on “maintaining our culture,” he added. Private equity and litigation are two of the busiest practice areas that are necessitating office expansion, Weingarten said. In designing the new office, each practice group’s respective floor or area of the workspace was themed loosely around their styles—for example, the litigation lounge has a water vapor fireplace and vintage arcade machines. Corporate partners on the 27th floor opted for a “wine lounge” vibe, Weingarten said, while the private wealth offices “feel like someone’s den at home.” “It reflects the personalities of the individual groups,” Weingarten added. "The overall theme is we take the work that we do extraordinarily seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously." The firm implemented a small garden on the 27th floor by a staircase, and added several living walls around the property to bring some semblance of nature into the high-rise. Other features Willkie was keen to show off included a new coffee bar, complete with a record player. The collection of vinyl has grown "organically" as lawyers bring in their favorite records, Weingarten said. Like many of its Big Law competitors that have redesigned offices in recent years, Willkie’s revamped workspace contains uniform offices for attorneys at all levels, from associate to partner. It also followed the trend of creating offices that have glass doors to allow for maximum transparency and natural light throughout the building, Weingarten said. The new office was created by architects at Gensler , which has worked with other Am Law firms, including Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld; Baker Botts; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; and O’Melveny & Myers. Weingarten said he also had input on the design elements in the LA office. “Everybody’s been on board; Nobody has had any issues,” Weingarten said of the staff reaction to the new location and office layout. “It's been very well received by associates and by as part of our recruiting of associates, people really like the egalitarian nature of the office space,” he added.

Feb 13

3 min

Willkie represented Panoramic Media in its sale of certain film, television and other projects to Miramax in connection with the appointment of Jonathan Glickman, founder of Panoramic Media, as CEO of Miramax. Panoramic Media is an independent film and television production company whose productions include the film Creed 3 for Amazon MGM Studios and the popular Netflix series Wednesday. Its upcoming productions include the Netflix series Zero Day, starring Robert De Niro and Angela Bassett. The Willkie team was led by partner Thomas Baxter and included partner Yaniv Maman, counsel Sidney Nunez, and associates Mackenzie Storm, Sabrina Khan and Dhananjay Adusumilli.

Apr 3

1 min

Bolsters Presence in the Market with Addition of Substantial Team of Partners, Counsel and Associates Spanning Corporate Transactions, Private Wealth and Litigation New York, NY (September 15, 2021) --- Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced the addition of a number of new partners, counsel and associates to its recently launched Los Angeles office. The office opened on September 2, 2021 under the leadership of partners Alan Epstein, Michele Mulrooney and Alex Weingarten. The team now includes approximately 40 lawyers, including 10 partners, 3 counsel and 26 associates, who will service clients in the areas of corporate and M&A transactions, private wealth, estates and trusts, litigation, and tax. Willkie Chairman Matthew Feldman said: “The additions to the team bring us new relationships and also give us the critical mass necessary to cement our position in the Los Angeles market in these practice areas. All of these areas are core practices for our Firm. We expect to be able to leverage the resources of our Firm to support and grow the practices of our new colleagues. We also expect that they will be able to accelerate our growth in the California market generally.” Los Angeles-based partner Alan Epstein, who is leading the launch of the office with Michele Mulrooney and Alex Weingarten, said: “The opportunity to lead Willkie’s expansion of its national platform in Los Angeles was one we could not pass up. We are thrilled to welcome our colleagues and look forward to working with them and all lawyers at the Firm to integrate with and support further growth of Willkie’s best-in-class platforms.” The following individuals have joined Willkie as partners: corporate transactions lawyers Paul Bernstein and Thomas Baxter; private wealth lawyers Andrew Copans, Ani Hovanessian and Kathy Wunderli; litigators Eric Bakewell and Logan Elliott; and tax lawyer Shane Nix. All are based in Los Angeles, except Hovanessian, who is in New York. In addition, private wealth lawyer Jonathan Lurie has joined as senior counsel. Paul Bernstein and Thomas Baxter represent companies and individuals in the entertainment industry in joint ventures, M&A, capital raising, endorsement services and other corporate transactions. Jonathan Lurie, Andrew Copans, Ani Hovanessian and Kathy Wunderli focus their practice on estate planning for high-net-worth individuals and their companies and non-profits. Eric Bakewell and Logan Elliott have a broad commercial litigation practice representing clients in areas of entertainment, probate, restructuring and business litigation. Shane Nix counsels companies and individuals on business and tax matters, including M&A and joint ventures, and specializes in tax planning for film, television, and music talent. Willkie’s Los Angeles announcement follows successful office openings in Chicago in 2020, and in San Francisco and Palo Alto in 2019 and 2018, respectively. ***************************************************** Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is an international law firm of approximately 1,000 attorneys with offices in Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Rome, San Francisco and Washington. The Firm is headquartered in New York City at 787 Seventh Avenue. Tel: 212.728.8000.

Sep 15

2 min