William M. Hake

Bill Hake is a litigation attorney with national trial counsel, mediation and litigation management experience. His practice concentrates primarily in commercial and financial litigation, toxic tort defense, product liability, construction defects, intellectual property, director and officer defense, legal malpractice defense and medical malpractice defense. Bill has handled cases in state and federal courts throughout California and in Texas, Maryland, Hawaii and Colorado.

Bill has managed and defended criminal and financial crimes cases in the investigation and litigation phases of corporate, civil, criminal and SEC matters. His defense work with local firms before he founded Hake Law in 2011 offers a strategic advantage to Wilson Elser’s litigation clients. In addition, Bill spent 14 years as lead trial counsel at a firm in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and six years as a trial attorney and partner at another San Francisco firm. He also served in the role of prosecutor as an assistant district attorney for the city and county of San Francisco.

In addition to his prodigious legal career, Bill taught and lectured at Harvard University School of Law for more than 25 years, and at Stanford University School of Law, as well as the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). He has lectured on trial practice, evidence, civil litigation and mediation for the California State Bar Continuing Education Program and the University of San Francisco School of Law. Bill also taught alternative dispute resolution and mediation for the U.S. Department of Justice and in the federal practice program for the federal court in Northern California.