Dr. William Lee

Instructor

Build a Statement of Purpose

Generate a tailored SOP for Dr. William Lee. Improve your application with a focused, well-structured draft.

Biography

William F. Lee is an Eli Goldston Visiting Lecturer at Harvard Law School. He is a partner at WilmerHale and is recognized as one of the country’s foremost trial and appellate intellectual property lawyers, having tried more than 200 cases and argued over 100 appeals in the Court of Appeals. Lee has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by American Lawyer and was selected as one of National Law Journal’s 100 Influential Lawyers in America. He has received honors as American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Year and has been cited as one of the fifty powerful people in Boston by the Boston Business Journal. Lee has served as lead trial counsel in significant cases, including a prominent case against Harvard's race-conscious admissions policy, and was involved in global litigation for Apple against Samsung. He was also trial counsel for Broadcom in high-profile cases involving Qualcomm. Prior to this, Lee served as associate counsel in the Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh Iran-Contra investigation, and as special assistant to the Massachusetts Attorney General investigating racial bias in the Commonwealth’s courts. He was managing partner at WilmerHale from 2000 to 2012 and is a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Research Interests

Experience

Visiting Lecturer

2025-09-01 — 2026-06-01

Harvard Law School • Cambridge, MA

Eli Goldston Visiting Lecturer, teaching courses on law.

Partner

1989-07-01 — 2023-10-01

WilmerHale • Boston, MA

Partner specializing in trial and appellate intellectual property law.

Awards

#

Lifetime Achievement Award

2023-01-01
#

100 Influential Lawyers in America

2022-01-01

Courses

Asian Americans and the Law Craft of Lawyering

Requirements for Harvard Law School

Master Program
Requirements
TOEFL
Listening
Required:25
Reading
Required:25
Writing
Required:25
Speaking
Required:25
Total
Required:100
Prerequisites
J.D. from an ABA-approved U.S. law school or a first law degree (LL.B. or equivalent) from a foreign law school
Application Checklist
  • Online application form
  • CV/Résumé
  • Personal statements (Parts A and B)
  • At least two recommendations
  • Official transcripts and diplomas
  • Official TOEFL report (if applicable)
  • Application fee ($85)
Specialization Notes

Applied for under 'Department of Law', 'Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law', 'Department of Constitutional Law', 'Department of Japanese Legal Studies', and 'Department of Human Rights'.