William Jackson

William Jackson

PartnerCo-Chair, Washington D.C. office
William Jackson
Washington, DC
+1 202 346 4216

William Jackson is co-chair of the firm’s Washington D.C. office, a partner in the Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice, and is a member of the firm’s Life Sciences Disputes group. His practice focuses primarily on the life sciences and healthcare sectors. He has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in intellectual property cases, class actions, contractual disputes, and other high-stakes commercial matters before federal courts, state courts, and domestic and international arbitration tribunals. In addition to representing clients in litigation, he often provides litigation risk analysis, counseling, and strategic advice.

William has litigated, arbitrated, mediated, and counseled clients in a wide variety of industries including asset management, commercial banking, computer software, healthcare, healthcare technology, hedge funds, investment banking, payment systems, petrochemical and petrochemical services, pharmaceutical manufacturing, private equity, retail sales, and telecommunications.

Experience

William's experience includes:

  • Acting as co-lead trial counsel in a bench trial for a pharmaceutical company against a competitor in a dispute involving multiple patents as well as theft of trade secret claims in connection with an inhaled pharmaceutical product
  • Serving as lead counsel for a Silicon Valley startup against a pharmaceutical benefit manager in contract, statutory, and tort claims valued at over $600 million
  • Served as co-lead trial counsel for a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Hatch-Waxman litigation against a generic competitor; the client’s victory in the case resulted in the company’s market cap increasing by more than $1 billion the day the decision was announced*
  • Acted as counsel to a leading healthcare technology company in connection with several litigations, as well as numerous intellectual property and related business matters*
  • Served as lead counsel for an international software company in investigation by the U.S. Government into $400 million in alleged overbillings, which resulted in the U.S. Government terminating the investigation without liability*
  • Represented a telecommunications company in parallel foreign and domestic litigations involving allegations of securities fraud and malfeasance*
  • Served as counsel to an engineering company in a contract dispute involving an international petrochemical pipeline*
  • Represented an international private equity fund in connection with control of a foreign bank, as well as investigations into allegations of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering*
  • Represented foreign investors in an international arbitration involving control and ownership of a Swiss corporation*
  • Defended a client in both civil and criminal antitrust actions involving the transportation and installation of deepwater offshore oil and gas platforms*
  • Represented an advertising company against a major grocery retailer in a breach of contract action*
  • Represented an international trading company against an international oil and gas corporation over the rights to an oil project in the Middle East*

* Denotes work done at a previous firm

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Goodwin, William was most recently a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, where he began his legal career. He also previously taught negotiation and alternative dispute resolution at Harvard Law School, and was a lecturer of law at Stanford Law School. 

Professional Activities

William is a Tony Patiňo Fellow.

He also serves on the Advisory Board to the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland.

Credentials

Education

JD1997

Columbia Law School

(Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar)

BAGovernment1991

Harvard University

(cum laude)

Clerkships

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Honorable Frank Coffin

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Honorable Norma L. Shapiro

Admissions

Bars

  • District of Columbia
  • Massachusetts
  • New York

Courts

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Publications

William's recent publications and presentations include: