NEW ORLEANS — Kean Miller has announced that William “Willie” J. Kolarik II has been elected to the partnership effective Jan. 1.
“We are proud to welcome Willie as a partner in our law firm. He has demonstrated an incredible commitment to the legal profession, the tax bar, and is a trusted client resource for federal, state and local tax representation” said Linda Perez Clark, managing partner.
Kolarik has 20 years of experience advising major companies on tax-related matters. He has provided tax advice to many of the world’s largest businesses across multiple industry groups, including, energy, financial institutions, industrial products, retail, consumer goods, health care, entertainment, and utilities. He has handled every major aspect of corporate, state and local tax matters, with a primary focus on state and local income, sales and use, gross receipts, property, payroll and other transaction-based taxes.
Kolarik has significant controversy and tax planning experience related to the state and local taxation of commodities and derivative transactions for financial institutions, commodities traders, and energy companies and is familiar with the state and local tax consequences of both physical and financial transactions related to base metals, sugar, coffee, grains, natural gas, oil, and electricity. He also has extensive experience assisting public utilities with state and local tax matters and with the tax and tax-related regulatory accounting issues associated with public utility ratemaking, e.g., normalization and consolidated tax savings adjustments. Willie has also participated in numerous energy industry transactions for both private equity firms and strategic investors involving both regulated and unregulated targets.
Kolarik earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting and Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000. In 2009 he earned his Juris Doctor and Doctor of Civil Law degree, cum laude, from the LSU Law Center. He also earned his Master of Laws degree in taxation, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center in 2010.
