Page 38 - Briefcase Volume 38 Number 1

2019–2020 UH LAW ALUMNI

ALUMNUS

OF THE

YEAR

William J. Jackson ʼ92

Bill Jackson has one of the most sophisticated and successful environmental litigation and natural
resource damages practices in the country. Bill chairs Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP’s national
Environmental Practice Group and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. For more than
twenty-five years, Bill has represented states, port authorities, railroads and energy-sector clients in
many of the largest and most significant contamination cases in the country. Bill is currently serving as
litigation counsel for Ohio, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, in
addition to numerous water districts and private-sector clients, in dozens of cases across the country
related to contamination and natural resource damages arising from perfluorinated compounds, and
he is serving as lead for the states and sovereigns in the AFFF Multi-District Litigation in Charleston,
South Carolina concerning drinking water contamination from these same chemicals. In recent years,
Bill has served as counsel for states and sovereign plaintiffs in a number of record-setting environmental
litigation matters, including serving as lead counsel for the State of New Jersey in the Passaic River
Litigation and representing the State of Louisiana in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill case, which
resulted in the largest environmental cleanup and recovery in history.
Bill graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 1992, where he was a member of the
Houston Law Review and was awarded the Harold Sellers Scholarship as the top student in his first-year
section. Since graduating, he has served the Law Center in many capacities, including serving as the
president of the UH Law Alumni Association and as president of the UH Law Foundation Board. For the
last six years, Bill chaired the UH Law Building Campaign and has served on the Executive Committee of
the University of Houston’s “Here, We Go!” billion-dollar capital campaign.

38 UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LAW CENTER