For further information regarding our team of neutrals, call Meghan Lettington at 949-760-5280, or email MLettington@phillipsadr.com
Area of expertise:
Bill Ohlemeyer brings a unique perspective to problem solving and dispute resolution based on his experience representing plaintiffs, defendants, and working in a Fortune 5 corporate law department. Over the past 40 years, Bill Ohlemeyer has litigated, managed, arbitrated, mediated, negotiated settlements, and tried to verdict significant cases in state and federal courts across the country. In addition, Bill has provided advice and counsel to investors and management facing a variety of legal and regulatory challenges.
Bill is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Bill graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri Law School and began his career clerking for Chief United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri, Scott O. Wright.
After joining Shook, Hardy & Bacon, where he became partner in 1991, Bill joined the Altria Group in 1999 as Vice President and Associate General Counsel. At Altria, Bill was responsible for managing and coordinating litigation issues facing the Altria Group companies, including Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, and Kraft Foods. Bill worked closely with management, investors, outside counsel, and the media to successfully manage the variety of legal challenges facing Altria and its operating companies, in particular tobacco products liability litigation. Upon his departure from Altria in 2008, Bill joined Boies Schiller Flexner as a partner where he practiced until April of 2023.
In private practice, Bill focused on complex civil litigation, with an emphasis on commercial disputes, mass torts, product liability, class actions, and federal multidistrict litigation. Bill obtained defense verdicts in a dozen cases alleging asbestos containing cigarette filters caused mesothelioma, obtained defense verdicts in cases alleging environmental exposures to carcinogens, tried and then settled several multi-billion dollar commercial disputes between major pharmaceutical companies, successfully tried “bellwether” cases in pharmaceutical multi-district litigation proceedings, and recently, as lead counsel for the Cherokee Nation in its opioid diversion litigation, Bill litigated, mediated, and negotiated settlements totaling over $130 million to conclude the Cherokee Nation’s litigation against the country’s largest wholesale drug distributors and major retail pharmacies.
Throughout his career, Bill was a perennial “Super Lawyer” and was included multiple times in the Law Dragon “500” list. Early in his career, Bill’s defense of a multi-party, multi-month, product liability trial earned a National Law Journal “Top Ten” trial lawyer designation.
Bill has been a member of the adjunct faculty at Columbia Law School since 2002, teaching an upper level “Mass Torts” class. He has authored multiple articles on trial practice, litigation management, litigation communication, and strategic legal thinking.
Bill and his wife Brigid currently live in New York. They have two boys, one working in Dallas in corporate finance, the other a student at SMU. Bill was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Greenwich Country Day School from 2010 to 2017 and was a member of the Board of Governors of the Little Orchestra Society, New York's oldest teaching orchestra, serving as Co-President/President from 2008 through 2017.
© 2025 PHILLIPS ADR | 2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 250, Corona Del Mar, California 92625 | (949) 760-5280 | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions