A specialist in business law, Rick Williams has provided expert advice to businesses and individuals for over 40 years.

As a founding member of the firm, Mr. Williams has extensive experience helping businesses succeed. He has counseled owners, CEOs, CFOs, managers, entrepreneurs, financiers, and bankers in a wide range of transactions, including start-ups, leveraged buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, roll-ups, refinancings, restructurings, liquidations and sales. Mr. Williams has advised on the sale or acquisition of over 200 companies and has personally acquired or founded five successful companies in industries as diverse as telecommunications services, manufacture of wireless devices, sales and distribution of golf equipment and specialty insurance.

Prior to founding Williams, Williams, Rattner & Plunkett in 1972, Mr. Williams worked in New York as an investment banker for Smith Barney and as a management consultant for Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He also served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1970 and is a graduate of the Defense Languages Institute (Russian).

Mr. Williams is actively involved in local community affairs. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Michigan Opera Theater and the Detroit Opera House, serves or has served on the Boards of Trustees of the Cranbrook Educational Community, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Beaumont Hospital, Cranbrook Cranbrook Horizons Upward Bound, the Center for Hearing Disorders and Bloomfield Hills Country Club. He is a director of several private foundations and a number of companies, including Penske Corporation, Clarke Power Services, Nexlink Communications, King Par, LLC, Conifer Holdings and others.

In 2008 Crains Detroit Business named Mr. Williams a finalist for Deal Maker of the Year and in 2009 M&A Advisor Magazine named Mr. Williams as its Deal Maker of the Year in Cross Border (European/American) Transactions. Mr. Williams has been listed in Chambers USA for his work as a leader in the M&A field.