John R. Thomas

JOHN THOMAS advises clients on transactional and strategic matters across global physical and financial commodities markets.

John’s practice centers on commodity-linked transactions and commercial arrangements spanning the full lifecycle of commodity trading and investment activities. He regularly represents market participants in acquisitions and divestitures, structured and secured financings, derivatives, intermediation arrangements, and long-term purchase, supply, offtake, transportation, and storage agreements. His experience extends across multiple jurisdictions and commodities, including oil and refined products, natural gas, power, metals and other traded commodities.

In addition to transactional work, John counsels clients on governance, regulatory, and compliance considerations that arise in connection with commodities businesses and trading platforms. He brings a practical, market-informed perspective to his representations, shaped by many years of experience advising trading desks, financial institutions, and asset owners on both day-to-day operations and transformational transactions.

Before joining Sidley, John spent over a decade at Goldman Sachs, working for the J. Aron & Company commodities division as lead counsel of that worldwide commodities business. In that capacity, he advised on trading and financing activities, mergers and acquisitions, derivatives, structured financed transactions, as well as corporate governance, regulatory matters, litigation, restructurings, and other enterprise-level issues.