Attorney Profiles

Bill handles motor vehicle negligence, trucking negligence and medical malpractice cases for the firm. He has represented the victims of drunk drivers, surgical and other malpractice, trucking accidents, defective medical devices, worker safety violations and other negligent acts. Bill has represented several many clients who suffered brain injuries as a result of negligence.

Bill has been listed as a Personal Injury "Super Lawyer" in North Carolina Super Lawyers magazine every year since the honor was established. He was selected one of the top 100 trial lawyers in North Carolina by the American Association for Justice and was given the highest rating - Preeminent - by Martindale-Hubbell. He has lectured and has written several articles for lawyers on a variety of topics related to negligence. Those topics include how to investigate nursing home cases; maximizing damages in wrongful death cases; dealing with arbitration clauses in medical malpractice cases and avoiding traps in drafting lawsuits.

Bill is also frequently involved with the firm's appellate work. Cases on which he has worked include:

• An appellate decision upholding a large punitive damages award against a nursing home that established that multiple, repeated acts of negligence can be considered wanton conduct.
• An important Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case that found an insurance company acted improperly when it denied benefits that would allow an injured child a chance to learn to walk.
• A case that established that injured workers who sue and win against third parties do not have to repay their employers for workers compensation payments when the employers were partly responsible for their injury.

Law is a second career for Bill. He spent 15 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, and was a long-time editor at The News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh.

Bill is an active member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cary, and has served in a variety of roles at the church. He served as chairman of the Wake County Bar Association's Endowment Committee, which provides scholarships to deserving law students, for 10 years, and serves on committees of the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice.

Bill is married and has two sons, David and Jonathan.