Contact
- (512) 647-6105
- Email William
- vCard
Education
- University of Connecticut
B.A., Economics, 1989
B.S., Accounting, 1989
With honors - St. John's University
School of Law, 1992
Class rank: 9/420
Areas of Practice
- Complex Business and Financial Litigation
- International/Cross-Border Litigation
- Soft IP Litigation
- Business/Partnership Disputes
- Insolvency Litigation
- Professional Liability Litigation
- Class and Derivative Actions
Clerkships
- The Honorable Reynaldo G. Garza
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,
1992-93
Admitted to Practice
- Texas
- New York
William T. Reid IV
Partner
Bill Reid is a partner with Reid Collins & Tsai and has practiced law since 1992. In the 1990,'s Bill left his civil practice and served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for three years, where he was a trial lawyer specializing in complex drug and/or corruption 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 litigation arising out of Ponzi schemes, fiduciary litigation, professional liability cases, bad-faith insurance actions, and other business torts, as well as claims against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act. 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 governments and clients in addition to their foreign lawyers.
Recent cases in which Bill has served as either acting lead or co-lead counsel include the following:
- Bill was recently named lead counsel in a pending case for 24 Colombian Governmental entities, including the Republic of Colombia, the Bogota Capital District, and 22 Departments in a civil RICO money laundering case against several of the world's largest liquor manufacturers seeking several hundred million dollars in damages. See Republic of Colombia et al v. Diageo North America, et al, 531 F. Supp. 2d 365 (E.D.N.Y. 2007).
- Recently hired as special counsel to the bankruptcy trustee in Agape World, Inc., which is a $400 million financial fraud.
- Recently hired as special counsel to the Plan Administrator in Cornerstone Ministries Investments, Inc., which is a $140 million Ponzi scheme.
- This past October, Bill won a $20.1 million jury verdict in San Antonio federal district court after a four-week trial in City of San Antonio v. Hotels.com, which is one of very few class actions to proceed to a jury verdict. The case was brought on behalf of 173 Texas cities over whether the online travel companies owed taxes on the retail amount that customers pay for the room rather than the wholesale or net rate that they pay taxes on. This was the first of dozens of similar cases to proceed to a jury trial and was closely watched by many. See "City Wins Suit Over Hotel Tax," San Antonio Express News, October 31, 2009.
- The representation of a 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. In 2008, Bill successfully prosecuted a $4 million fraudulent transfer case to judgment in a bench trial versus a reputed Gambino crime family member. Bill also successfully settled claims against the company's former law firm and auditors. To date, settlements exceed $30 million.
- The ongoing representation of the Cayman Liquidators for Trade & Commerce Bank in connection with an $800 million money-laundering and Ponzi scheme in which the two entities' creditors were victimized by several South American money launderers.
- The ongoing representation of the offshore Liquidator for Stewardship, Ltd., which lost over $350 million in various investments.
- The confidential 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 for a confidential amount. See Bakerman v. Sidney Frank Importing Company, 2006 WL 3927242 (Del. Ch. 2006).
- The recent confidential settlement obtained for Versata Software, Inc. (f/k/a Trilogy Software, Inc.) in a suit for copyright infringement and breach of a license agreement against various GE entities in Austin federal court, seeking over $50 million in damages.
- The simultaneous representation of a bankruptcy trustee and a group of 1,100 investors/ creditors in the InverWorld case (a $325 million Ponzi scheme) in the state and federal courts in San Antonio. Third-party litigation recoveries in the case exceeded $55 million, including a claim against a Big Four accounting firm, which was settled for $26.8 million.
- 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, for their involvement in the Enron fraud.
Bill practices law nationally and internationally. Currently, he is involved in cases in New York, Delaware, California, Nevada, Texas, and Georgia, many of which involve assets and companies throughout the world. 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. Bill is admitted to practice in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Fifth Circuits, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, as well as all of the United States District Courts in 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 Univ. of Connecticut at Storrs in 1989.