Mr. Williams is a graduate of Dartmouth College, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Columbia University School of Law. From 1979 to 1983, Mr. Williams served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Over the course of his legal career, Mr. Williams has served as lead counsel in numerous trials and appeals in both state and Federal court as well as arbitrations before the American /Arbitration Association and the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Mr. Williams has successfully represented hundreds of athletes over the years, many on a pro bono basis, in connection with disciplinary and eligibility matters, including the opportunity to participate in the Olympic and Pan American Games and World Championship competitions. 

Relative to his career in Sports Law, following his graduation from Columbia Law School, he participated in the formation of the USOC's first-ever Athletes' Advisory Council ("AAC") in 1974, and was a member of the AAC through 1981, serving as its Chair from 1977 through 1981.

As Chair of the AAC, Mr. Williams testified before the President's Commission on Olympic Sports, which had been formed to study the role of the USOC and other amateur sports organizations in this country. Among the recommendations of the Commission was that Congress should pass legislation to establish legal protections for athletes seeking to participate in the Olympics, the Pan American Games, and world championship competitions.

At the resulting Senate hearings, Mr. Williams advocated the participation of athletes in the governance of the USOC, and for establishing a dispute-resolution mechanism to protect the rights of athletes trying out for the Olympics, Pan Am Games, and the world championships of any sport on the Olympic or Pan Am program. Mr. Williams also worked with the Senate staff and legal counsel for the NCAA to draft the “Athletes' Rights Section” of the subsequently enacted Amateur Sports Act of 1978 and the analogous provisions in the USOC Constitution and By-Laws.

During this same period, Mr. Williams was a member of the USOC's Legislation Committee, and subsequently, he was appointed Chair of that Committee and served for eight years in that capacity under three USOC Presidents. As Chair of the USOC Legislation Committee and a member of the USOC Board of Directors, Mr. Williams advocated the adoption of key provisions in the USOC Constitution and By-Laws, including provisions concerning athlete representation on the Boards of the USOC and member National Governing Bodies, athletes' and coaches' selection, the avoidance of conflicts of interest, and complaint and hearing procedures.

A long-time advocate of due process rights for athletes, Mr. Williams drafted a “Due Process Checklist" which specifies the minimum protections to which athletes are entitled to have in disciplinary and eligibility hearings held by National Governing Bodies, as mandated by the Sports Act, and which has also served as a model for hearing procedures adopted by many National Governing Bodies. 

More recently, following disclosures of the USOC’s involvement in the cover-up of abuse of gymnastics athletes by Larry Nassar,  Mr. Williams founded The Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOPC and presently serves as co-chair of Team Integrity with fellow Olympian and athletes’ rights advocate, Nancy Hogshead-Makar. 

Mr. Williams was a National Champion in cross-country skiing, a two-time All-American in the sport and following service in the US Army as an infantry officer, competed in the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympic Games in the sport of biathlon.