William E. Sterling

William Sterling is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's San Francisco office with experience in land use and environmental law and intellectual property matters. In his work with the West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group, Mr. Sterling's practice focuses particularly on enforcement of and compliance with California's recently-strengthened housing laws, including the Housing Accountability Act (HAA), the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (SB 330) and California State Density Bonus Law. Mr. Sterling's practice is supported by his extensive experience litigating cases in state and federal court, and before various administrative bodies. Mr. Sterling has particular experience with motion practice, fact and expert discovery, claim construction proceedings, summary judgment briefing and all aspects of trial.

Mr. Sterling has also made public service and charitable work a focus of his practice. In addition to working yearly with the Boston Public Law Association to evaluate and highlight the extraordinary contributions of local inventors, Mr. Sterling has engaged in pro bono representation on matters ranging from defending access to public housing, to working with diversity-oriented start-up companies in implementing policies to protect their intellectual property and assets.

At Boston University School of Law, Mr. Sterling served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Science & Technology Law, where he researched issues related to the transmission and performance of broadcast television content under the Copyright Act.