William B. Adams is Co-Chair of the firm’s National Appellate Practice and has been a member of that practice since its inception in 2005. William has handled dozens of appeals spanning a broad range of subject matters, including intellectual property, products liability, bankruptcy, insurance, environmental, administrative law, and constitutional law. He has particularly substantial experience in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits and the New York Appellate Division, First Department.
William has been recognized twice as a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer. Most recently, in January 2026, he received that recognition for his work vacating a $102 million arbitration award that was procured by fraud on the arbitrator, in a dispute over natural gas shipping company Eletson Gas. Before that, he was recognized for his Delaware Supreme Court victory on behalf of Mirae Asset in a $5.8 billion COVID busted-deal case.
William’s other notable victories include Samsung Electronics Co. v. MPEG LA, L.L.C., which held that a patent pool administrator had improperly slashed Samsung’s royalties after it left the pool; Jackpocket, Inc. v. LottoMatrix N.Y. LLC, which held that the JACKPOT.COM trademark did not infringe a rival lottery courier service’s JACKPOCKET trademark; and Home Equity Mortgage Trust v. DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc., which allowed $1.2 billion in claims related to residential mortgage-backed securities to proceed to trial.
William graduated with honors from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was a Note Editor for the Stanford Law Review. Before joining the firm, William served as a law clerk for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
- Acis Capital Management
- American International Group
- Cultural Care, Inc.
- Elliott Management
- OpenAI
- Samsung Electronics
- Obtained two unanimous victories for Samsung in the New York Appellate Division, First Department, in Samsung Electronics Co. v. MPEG LA, L.L.C., 235 A.D.3d 603 (1st Dep’t 2025) & 242 A.D.3d 433 (1st Dep’t 2025), which held that a patent pool licensing administrator had improperly withheld $20 million in royalties from Samsung after Samsung exercised its contractual right to leave the patent pool.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Acis Capital Management in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Terry v. NexPoint Diversified Real Est. Tr., 2025 WL 3229006 (2d Cir. 2025), which affirmed dismissal of fraud and related tort claims for supposed mismanagement of an investment fund.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Brazilian family members in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Klein v. Altara RK Investments Ltd., 2025 WL 560105 (2d Cir. 2025), which upheld the denial of Section 1782 discovery that the district court had deemed a “fishing expedition.”
- Obtained a unanimous win for LottoMatrix N.Y. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Jackpocket, Inc. v. LottoMatrix N.Y. LLC, 2024 WL 1152520 (2d Cir. 2024), which upheld a district court ruling that our client’s JACKPOT.COM trademark did not infringe a rival lottery courier service’s JACKPOCKET trademark.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Block, Inc. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in H&R Block, Inc. v. Block, Inc., 58 F.4th 939 (8th Cir. 2023), which reversed a preliminary injunction in a trademark case in which H&R Block alleged that Block, Inc.’s use of its corporate name and Cash App’s green rounded square logo with a white dollar sign in connection with its new tax preparation service, Cash App Taxes, infringed H&R Block’s various BLOCK trademarks and green square logo.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Rhapsody (f/k/a Napster) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Lowery v. Rhapsody International, Inc., 75 F.4th 985 (9th Cir. 2023), which reversed an attorneys’ fee award in a class action that was more than thirty times the amount actually paid to class members.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Mirae Asset in the Delaware Supreme Court, in AB Stable VIII LLC v. MAPS Hotels and Resorts One LLC, 268 A.3d 198 (Del. 2021), which held that the seller’s drastic changes to its hotel operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic without first obtaining the buyer’s consent breached the ordinary course covenant and excused the buyer from closing the $5.8 billion deal.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Vantage Deepwater in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Vantage Deepwater Co. v. Petrobras America, Inc., 966 F.3d 361 (5th Cir. 2020), which rejected a public policy challenge to enforcement of a $722 million arbitration award against Petrobras.
- Obtained a unanimous win for a group of real-estate developers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Oakland Bulk & Oversized Terminals, LLC v. City of Oakland, 960 F.3d 603 (9th Cir. 2020), which held that the City of Oakland had breached a development agreement by passing legislation that modified the permitted uses of the marine terminal that our clients had been authorized to build.
- Obtained a unanimous win for a Fortune 200 consumer products company in the Pennsylvania Superior Court, in Brandt v. Bon-Ton Stores, 2020 WL 865276 (Pa. Super. 2020), which affirmed a landmark summary judgment victory in the first cosmetic talc case to approach trial in Philadelphia.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Amplify Energy Corp. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Aera Energy v. Beta Operating Co., 799 F. App’x 221 (5th Cir. 2020), which rejected a challenge to the chapter 11 reorganization plan of an Amplify subsidiary and allowed it to use $160 million in cash that had been tied up in a trust.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Berry Petroleum Company in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in French v. Linn Energy, L.L.C., 936 F.3d 334 (5th Cir. 2019), which held that claims asserted against Berry by a former shareholder were subject to subordination under Section 510(b) of the Bankruptcy Code.
- Obtained a unanimous win for U.S. Bank, N.A., as trustee, in the New York Appellate Division, First Department, in Home Equity Mortgage Trust v. DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc., 175 A.D.3d 1175 (1st Dep’t 2019), which cleared way for trial on $1.2 billion in claims arising from DLJ’s breach of representations and warranties in four RMBS trusts.
- Obtained a unanimous win for G-I Holdings in the New Jersey Appellate Division, in Ashland Inc. v. G-I Holdings Inc., 2019 WL 1552750 (N.J. App. Div. 2019), which reversed a lower court’s ruling that had allowed G-I’s former co-client to disclose certain documents protected by the attorney-co-client privilege to third parties.
- Obtained a unanimous win for Samsung in the New York Appellate Division, First Department, in MPEG LA v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., 166 A.D.3d 13 (1st Dep’t 2018), which reversed a $115 million judgment entered against Samsung for supposed breach of patent-pool licensing agreements.
- Obtained a unanimous win for the Federal Housing Finance Agency in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in FHFA v. Nomura Holding America, Inc., 873 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2017), which affirmed an $806 million judgment in favor of FHFA under Sections 12(a)(2) and 15 of the Securities Act and analogous Blue Sky laws.
- Obtained a unanimous win for The Bank of New York Mellon, as securities administrator for an RMBS trust, in the New York Appellate Division, First Department, in Bank of New York Mellon v. WMC Mortgage, LLC, 151 A.D.3d 72 (1st Dep’t 2017), which reinstated claims alleging breach of “backstop” repurchase obligations for defective loans and obligations to notify of such defects.
- Obtained a unanimous win for The Dow Chemical Company in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Nova Chemicals Corp. (Canada) v. Dow Chemical Co., 856 F.3d 1012 (Fed. Cir. 2017), which affirmed an award of attorneys’ fees under Section 285 of the Patent Act, following a prior unanimous win for Dow that had affirmed the dismissal of an independent action seeking to set aside a final judgment of patent infringement, see 607 F. App’x 993 (Fed. Cir. 2015).
- Obtained a unanimous win for Infrassure, Ltd., a Swiss reinsurer, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Infrassure Ltd. v. First Mutual Transportation Assurance Co., 842 F.3d 174 (2d Cir. 2016), which interpreted a reinsurance agreement containing two competing arbitration provisions and held the one requiring arbitration in New York applied to the parties’ dispute concerning claims filed after Superstorm Sandy.
- Obtained an 8-0 victory for Samsung in the U.S. Supreme Court in Samsung Electronics Co. v. Apple Inc., 137 S. Ct. 429 (2016), which held that, where a patented design is applied only to a component of a product, an award of infringer’s profits under Section 289 of the Patent Act should be limited to profits attributable to that component.
- Obtained a 6-2 victory for Wyeth, a division of Pfizer, in the U.S. Supreme Court in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, 562 U.S. 223 (2011), a decision holding that the Vaccine Act expressly preempts state-law design-defect claims against manufacturers of childhood vaccines.
- Obtained an 8-1 win for Shell Oil Company in the U.S. Supreme Court in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway v. United States; Shell Oil Co. v. United States, 556 U.S. 599 (2009), which held that a shipper of useful products may not be held liable under CERCLA as an “arranger” for the disposal of hazardous waste.
- Stanford Law School
(J.D., with distinction, 2004)- Order of the Coif
- Stanford Law Review:
- Note Editor
- Stanford Law & Policy Review:
- Senior Editor
- Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
- Cornell University
(B.S., Industrial & Labor Relations, with honors, 2001)
- State Bar of New York
- State Bar of California
- Supreme Court of the United States
- United States Court of Appeals:
- First Circuit
- Second Circuit
- Third Circuit
- Fourth Circuit
- Fifth Circuit
- Seventh Circuit
- Eighth Circuit
- Ninth Circuit
- Tenth Circuit
- Eleventh Circuit
- D.C. Circuit
- Federal Circuit
- United States District Court:
- Southern District of New York
- Eastern District of New York
- Northern District of California
- Southern District of California
- Law Clerk to the Hon. Judith W. Rogers:
- United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 2004-2005
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America: Appellate, inc. Supreme Court, 2025
- Legal 500 USA for Dispute Resolution: Appellate – Courts of Appeal/Supreme Courts (States and Federal) “Recommended Lawyers”, 2024