Bill Reid is a partner with Diamond McCarthy and has practiced law since 1992. In June 2000, within three months of the Firm's founding, Bill joined Diamond McCarthy after serving as an Assistant U. S. Attorney in the Western District of Texas for three years, where he was a trial lawyer specializing in complex drug prosecutions. As an AUSA, Bill tried 25 cases to verdict and prosecuted hundreds of cases annually.

Although Bill handles all types of complex litigation, primarily on the plaintiff's side of the docket, Bill's primary areas of practice include insolvency, business fraud, complex commercial cases, and soft intellectual property litigation. He has extensive experience in claims against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, fiduciary litigation, bad-faith insurance actions, and other business torts. In addition, Bill handles a docket of domestic and foreign money-laundering-related cases, both as trial counsel and as liaison counsel to various foreign clients and their foreign lawyers.

In the past several years, Bill has led or co-led Diamond McCarthy teams to well over $100 million in settlements and judgments. Bill frequently utilizes an outside lawyer to act as settlement counsel in significant cases. Settlement counsel essentially handles all settlement-related tasks, allowing Bill and his teams to focus on litigation. This approach has been instrumental in the success that he has enjoyed over the past few years.

In addition to the use of settlement counsel, Bill's litigation teams typically include third-party litigation professionals and consultants, including, but not limited to, various former federal FBI and DEA agents who specialize in investigation, asset recovery, and money laundering, and Courtroom Intelligence Inc. (one of the leading trial consulting firms).

Recent cases in which Bill has served as either acting lead or co-lead counsel include the following:

• The ongoing representation of the post-confirmation liquidating trustee in the USA Capital case in Las Vegas. The USA Capital case involves a $960 million Ponzi scheme related to the management of a sub-prime mortgage servicer. Recently, Bill successfully prosecuted a $4 million fraudulent transfer case to judgment in a bench trial versus a reputed Gambino crime family member. During the course of 2008, Bill has favorably settled several of the more significant claims against USA Capital's professionals on confidential terms prior to filing suit. Bill is now leading a trial team that is seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages from several of USA Capital's remaining professionals.
  
  
• The ongoing representation of the Cayman Liquidators for Trade & Commerce Bank and Establishment for International Investment Inc. in connection with an $800 money-laundering scheme in which the two entities' creditors were victimized by several South American money launderers.
  
  
• The ongoing representation of Versata Software, Inc. (f/k/a Trilogy Development Group, Inc.) in a copyright infringement and breach of license agreement suit against various GE entities in Austin federal court seeking over $30 million in damages.
  
  
• The ongoing representation of the rightful trademark owner for the Monte Carlo cigarette brand in connection with claims against Japan Tobacco and others for cigarette smuggling in former Yugoslavia and the Balkans.
  
  
• The ongoing representation of an American businessperson against a Swiss-based, Delaware LLC in connection with its breach of a stock transfer agreement in which the defendant failed to timely register the stock on the DAX Exchange as agreed. Damages exceed $30 million, and the suit is pending in Delaware Superior Court.
  
  
• The successful prosecution and settlement of a shareholder derivative action for breach of fiduciary duty against certain fiduciaries for misallocating $2.5 billion in proceeds stemming from the sale of the Grey Goose Vodka line to Bacardi. The case settled recently for a confidential amount. See Bakerman v. Sidney Frank Importing Company, 2006 WL 3927242 (Del. Ch. 2006).
  
  
• Recent settlement of a class action in McAllen federal court during the course of the prosecution of a breach of contract class action on behalf of thousands of bond indemnitors who were victimized by a group of bail bond agents and insurance companies. In November 2008, just prior to trial, a settlement was reached for a total of $5.3 million. The settlement remains subject to court approval.
  
  
• The successful prosecution and partial settlement for a confidential amount of the claims of Digital Docs, Inc. and The Compliance Source, Inc. for breach of contract and copyright infringement in a software dispute against GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Inc. over the continued use of the plaintiffs' licensed software post-termination, as well as the unlawful sublicensing of the software to third parties. The team continues to prosecute additional claims for sublicensing against GreenPoint and a Dallas law firm. See Companies Allege Dallas Firm Misappropriated Mortgage Database, TEXAS LAWYER, June 30, 2008.
  
  
• The simultaneous representation of a bankruptcy trustee and a group of 1,100 investors/creditors in the InverWorld case in the state and federal courts in San Antonio. To date, third-party litigation recoveries in the case exceed $54 million. Bill acted as lead counsel in prosecuting claims against, inter alios, Deloitte & Touche, which were settled for $26.8 million. See Gutierrez v. Deloitte & Touche, 147 F. Supp. 2d 584 (W.D. Tex. 2001) (defeated SLUSA jurisdiction in federal court). See Gutierrez v. The Cayman Islands Firm of Deloitte & Touche, 100 S.W.3d 261 (Tex. App. - San Antonio 2002) (handled the oral argument and convinced the court of appeals to reverse the trial court and find personal jurisdiction over Deloitte Cayman).
  
  
• The successful prosecution and settlement (for $1.34 million) under the FTCA of a malicious prosecution case against the federal government for its pursuit of Alan Brown and Jean Brown, two prominent San Antonio attorneys, on bogus tax charges stemming from a five-year investigation that concluded in Alan Brown's acquittal. See Payback Time: San Antonio Lawyers Fought the IRS and Won, TEXAS LAWYER, April 16, 2007.
  
  
• The successful defense of RaboAgrifinance, a Rabobank subsidiary, on a $7 million breach of contract and wrongful foreclosure action related to a 7,000-acre ranch in west Texas. After a two-week trial, the jury returned a take-nothing verdict completely exonerating the client. Recently, Bill led a team that won two follow-on back-to-back bench trials. All of these victories are on appeal, except for one $4 million summary judgment that was affirmed. See Rabo Agrifinance, Inc. v. Terra XXI, Ltd., 2007 WL 4305378 (5th Cir. 2007).
  
  
• The successful contingent-fee representation of an Austin businessperson in the pursuit of bad-faith insurance claims against Western Heritage Insurance Co. A three-week jury trial resulted in a $6.5 million jury verdict, which was later settled at a discount.
  
  
• The successful representation of the LJM2 Creditors Liquidation Trust in pursuit of legal malpractice claims against a nationally recognized law firm, in addition to accounting malpractice claims against PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The resulting pre-suit settlements totaled $8.6 million (the cases were handled on an hourly basis for fees of less than $2 million).
  
  
• The successful representation of Rabobank International, an international AAA-rated bank, in the pursuit and settlement of various negligent misrepresentation claims against PwC Mexico.

Bill is a member of the American Bar Association, the Fifth Circuit Bar Association, the New York State Bar, and the State Bar of Texas. After law school, Bill served as a law clerk to the Honorable Reynaldo G. Garza, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Bill received his J. D., cum laude, from St. John's University School of Law in 1992. While at St. John's, Bill was an editor on the ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW and the NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW. Bill received a dual degree: B. A. (Economics) and B. S. (Accounting), cum laude, from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1989.