William F. Lee | |
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Nationality | American |
Occupation | Lawyer |
Known for | Iran-Contra investigation, Harvard Board |
William F. Lee is a lawyer, presently co-managing partner of the international law firm of WilmerHale, which was formed from the merger of Wilmer Cutler and Hale and Dorr.[1] He is the first Asian-American to lead a major American law firm.
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Lee received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1972; an M.B.A. with Distinction from Cornell University in 1976, and a J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from Cornell Law School in 1976. Lee joined Hale & Dorr in 1976, and was managing partner from 2000 to 2004. He chaired the firm's Litigation Department for four years. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Lee is married to Leslie Lee. He is father of three children: Christopher, Catherine and Margaret.
From July 1987 to June 1989, Lee served as associate counsel to Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh in the Iran-Contra investigation. In that capacity, he was responsible for certain portions of the grand jury investigation and resulting indictments. He has served as a special assistant to the Massachusetts Attorney General for the purpose of investigating alleged incidents of racial bias in the Commonwealth's courts.
Lee has served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, where he taught intellectual property litigation. In May 2000, Lee was one of 15 attorneys to be named by the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to the court's Advisory Committee.
In June 2002, Lee was elected to the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and he is a member of the Visiting Committee at Cornell Law School. He previously served as vice chairman of the board of the Boston University Medical Center University Hospital, a trustee of the Boston Medical Center, and an overseer of the Museum of Science.
In April 2010, Lee was elected as a fellow of the Harvard Corporation effective July 1, 2010. He succeeds James Houghton as a member of Harvard's seven member primary governing board.