William Sinclair

Bill has tried jury and non-jury civil matters as both plaintiff's and defense counsel, as well as criminal matters, in state and federal courts in the District of Columbia and Maryland. He has also argued before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits, the Appellate Court of Maryland, and state and federal trial courts in California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Virginia.

Bill’s clients have included corporations, individuals, and public agencies and utilities in toxic tort, environmental, and product liability cases; personal injury matters; civil rights cases; commercial, business and employment matters; land use, construction and other real estate disputes; and environmental, health care, and securities enforcement proceedings and investigations as well as other complex crimes.

Bill also has served, or serves, as (co-) lead, or local, plaintiff’s and defense counsel in several class action and other complex litigation matters, including:

• Serving as local counsel for a Global Fortune 50 energy company in defense of putative class action climate change litigation in Maryland’s federal and state courts;
• Serving as co-lead counsel for the State of Maryland and Baltimore County in the opioids litigation;
• Serving as local counsel in a securities action for a class recently approved by the U.S. District Court, see In re: Under Armour Sec. Litig., -- F. Supp. 3d ---, 2022 WL 4545286 (D. Md. Sept. 29, 2022);
• Serving as local counsel in putative class action against local university for breach of contract claims relating to how it handled in-person student classes and living during the COVID pandemic;
• Serving as local counsel in putative class against Johns Hopkins University for wage and hour violations;
• Serving as lead counsel in defense of putative class action in California for wage and hour violations; and
• Served as co-lead counsel in successful putative class action against the National Hockey League regarding concussions.

Bill has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law since 2009.

Bill graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Environmental Law Journal, and Head Commissioner of the North Grounds Softball League, and the University of California at San Diego, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and received Highest Honors in History. While in college, he was captain of the Men’s Division I Varsity Volleyball team and the recipient of several academic and athletic awards

• 2003-04 Law Clerk, Hon. C. Christopher Hagy, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Who Rules the Roost? CWA Liability After Md. Ruling, Product Liability Law360, Portfolio Media Group (September 2010)

Status Check: Assessing Interior’s Implementation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, Vol. VII, Issue 3 (Spring 2007)

Future of the “Feeney Amendment” After High Court’s Sentencing Rulings, Legal Backgrounder, 2005

Panelist for Maryland State Bar Association Annual Conference, September 23, 2020 (presenting to the State Bar a program entitled: The Next Wave: Transitioning Law Firm Management, along with managing partners from Saul Ewing, Miles & Stockbridge, and Offit Kurman)

Panelist at American University Washington College of Law, March 1, 2019 (presenting to the American University Sports and Entertainment Law Fall Symposium on issues relating to amateur status in sports)

Panelist at American University Washington College of Law, October 20, 2017 (presenting to the American University Sports and Entertainment Law Fall Symposium on concussion issues)

Panelist for Anne Arundel County Bar Association Annual Meeting, March 4, 2017 (presenting on issues of fiduciary litigation, business valuation and business "divorce")

Panelist at the University of Virginia School of Law, February 10, 2017 (presenting to the University of Virginia Sports Law Symposium on concussion issues)