William J. Lee leads Kershaw Talley Barlow’s scientific consulting practice and supports its nationally recognized mass tort and class action practices. William works at the intersection of epidemiology, law, and policy, collaborating with leading experts to develop scientific and medical evidence and performing epidemiological and biostatistical analyses as an expert himself in support of federal and state trial, appellate, and Supreme Court litigations. William currently serves or has served on court-appointed scientific leadership representing hundreds of thousands of patients in national pharmaceutical and medical device complex litigations including Acetaminophen – ASD/ADHD Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3043), Gilead Tenofovir Cases (JCCP No. 5043), and Essure Product Cases (JCCP No. 4887). In each litigation, William has played an integral role in shaping leadership's pre-trial and trial strategies regarding causation, liability, and notice.
In recent years, William has employed well-controlled, frequentist and Bayesian disproportionality methods to analyze post-market adverse events and developed new lines of causation evidence that many courts have not previously considered. For his significant and sustained contributions to the field of epidemiology and its application to the law, William has been elected to the prestigious American College of Epidemiology, in which he serves on its Ethics and Policy Committee and its Foundation Board of Directors. William has also been elected to the International Epidemiological Association and named a Leading American Scientist by Marquis Who’s Who in America, which has published biographies of leading professionals since 1898. In 2024, William was recognized among the nation's Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in Health by the National Minority Quality Forum, the nation's leading health equity research, education, and advocacy organization, for utilizing the legal system to reduce patient risk and advance health equity among minoritized and underserved populations.
After nearly a decade working in biomedical research, clinical research, epidemiology, and biostatistics, William attended Emory University School of Law for his legal education where he graduated with honors near the top of his class and was inducted into the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Honor Society. Prior to law school, William received his Master of Science Secundi Honoris Academici in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University and his Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology from Duke University. William has worked at a number of high-profile universities and federal scientific agencies including Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the National Center for Patient Safety, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. William actively publishes his original research and maintains regular speaking engagements in the scientific and legal communities. This includes publishing a national, peer-reviewed study on critical quality of care outcomes from a novel patient safety intervention implemented across the Veterans Health Administration and presenting to the CDC Law and Science Advisory Group on biochemical and pharmacological challenges to regulating synthetic drugs.
In his spare time, William teaches English to schoolchildren in China and volunteers through his church and alumni networks to give back to the community. William currently serves as a Board Member and the Sacramento Chair of the Emory Alumni Association and is a member of the Duke Law Club of Northern California.
