Biography
Bill Armstrong is a partner, managing cases for vairous clients and managing the California offices. He has tried over 80 jury cases over the past 30 years in federal and state courts mainly in California, but also in other states including Washington, Ohio, Louisiana, and Virginia, involving a variety of subjects, including complex scientific matters, antitrust law, contract law, various environmental laws, lenders' liability law, maritime law, partnership law, product liability law, real estate and land use law, securities law, and tort law. In the course of those trials, he has worked with, examined or cross examined experts in the fields of aircraft manufacturing, almond production, automobile design, cardiology, chemistry, clinical ecology, economics, epidemiology, fine arts printing, fruit handling, hematology, immunology, internal medicine, neurology, neuropsychology, obstetrics & gynecology, oncology, pediatrics, pharmaceutical research, psychiatry, pulmonology, radiology, risk assessment, rubber products manufacture, Savings & Loan regulation, statistics, toxicology, and viticulture.
Bill has also managed mass tort litigation, including the representation of an asbestos manufacturer in San Francisco Bay Area litigation involving several thousand personal injury and wrongful death cases (late 1970’s through 1985) and of one of the defendants in the personal injury litigation in Riverside County, California, arising out of the claimed exposures to toxic materials from the Stringfellow Hazardous Waste site, involving over 5,000 plaintiffs. He co-chaired the Defendants’ Coordinating Committee in that litigation and participated as trial counsel for six months of trial, until the matter settled. He also assisted with the defense of several oil companies in the Lockheed personal injury litigation in Los Angeles County, involving approximately 600 plaintiffs, was the lead trial counsel for one of the trial groups (1997), and assisted in the trial of another group (1998).
Bill served in the U.S. Army 1968-1970. He then joined McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen in 1970 and was a partner there from 1975 to April 1996, when he formed the predecessor to Armstrong & Associates, LLP, which merged with DeHay & Elliston LLP in 2017. Bill was a member of the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School from 1991 to 1995, was a member of the Stanford Law School Advisory Committee on Environmental and Toxic Tort Law. Bill taught in the Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and was a regular guest lecturer in the Toxic Harms seminar.
Honors
Member Stanford Law Review
Bar Admisisons
California
9th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Northern District of California
Central District of California
Eastern District of California
Education
Stanford Law School, J.D., 1967
Stanford University, B.A., 1964
Associations
Member DRI
Publications
I was an author of the CEB text "Effective Introduction of Evidence" (1990 & 2d ed. 2000), and the editor for its annual updates from 1990 to 2019, and various articles including "Tort Damages for Injuries Not Yet Suffered" (ABA Section of Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law 1992).
Presentations
"Security in Electronic Communications and Protecting Electronic Documents in Discovery" (Seminar presentation, June 1995)
Community
He served on the Walnut Creek Planning Commission (1975 to 1977) and City Council (1976 to 1981), and was mayor of the City of Walnut Creek from 1980 to 1981. Since 1980 he has been a member of various charitable boards and fundraising committees for arts in Contra Costa County. He currently serves as President of the Board of the California Symphony Orchestra. Bill was a member of the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School from 1991 to 1995, is a member of the Stanford Law School Advisory Committee on Environmental and Toxic Tort Law, has taught in the Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and is a regular guest lecturer in the Toxic Harms seminar.
