William A. Walsh is a seasoned fighter for the rights of individuals harmed by air pollution, water contamination and other abuses of the environment. His status as a veteran courtroom campaigner against those with scant regard for a healthy planet makes Mr. Walsh an invaluable asset in his capacity as an associate attorney assigned to our Environmental Toxic Torts Litigation group. For example, he played an important supporting role in a major lawsuit we brought against the petroleum industry on behalf of a multi-state group of municipal water suppliers whose wells and reservoirs had become tainted with the gasoline additive MBTE — a compound shown to cause cancer.

Illustrative, too, is Mr. Walsh’s continuing representation of the nation’s largest water provider in litigation against chemical manufacturers alleged to have caused perchloroethylene (PCE) contamination of groundwater (in a somewhat related matter, Mr. Walsh also is representing workers who, while testing coal samples, were for a long time directly exposed to PCE and subsequently suffered liver, kidney and central-nervous-system damage as a result). However, Mr. Walsh’s scope of practice is not confined to environmental toxic torts; he also handles land-use, anti-racketeering, insurance, banking, and civil-rights cases.

An attorney since 1989, Mr. Walsh is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey and West Virginia. He is a 1989 cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Law. During his time at Minnesota, he was a director of the school’s moot-court program, served on the staff of the University of Minnesota Law Review, and received from the American Trial Lawyers Assn. (now the American Association for Justice) an award for his authorship of an environmental law paper. Prior to enrolling at Minnesota, Mr. Walsh spent nearly two years on a U.S. senator’s legislative staff.

That was preceded by his student years at Haverford College, culminating in his 1984 receipt of a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. In 2000, Mr. Walsh served two terms on the board of education overseeing the Hendrick Hudson Central School District in New York State. He remains active in his community, serving on the board and as treasurer of the Lincoln Society in Peekskill — the oldest, continuously operating U.S. organization dedicated to perpetuating the name, ideals, and memory of the 16th American president. Additionally, Mr. Walsh is a member of the New York State Bar Assn.