Biography
William B. Bierce has over thirty years experience in advising clients in many aspects of corporate law, commercial contracts and licensing and technology transactions. He focuses on helping clients build, operate and sell businesses of all sizes from start-ups to family-owned and established companies. He has extensive experience in structuring new and joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border transactions, outsourcing, strategic business alliances, dispute resolution, corporate governance and exit planning. He advises on the development, ownership, commercialization and transfers of intellectual property, technology transactions and platforms (software, SaaS/BPaaS, AI, IoT, licensing, e-business and social media), privacy, cyber-security and related compliance. Bill represents both globalizing U.S.-based businesses and many foreign-owned companies in their U.S. business operations. He is fluent in French.
A prolific author in legal and regulatory issues, and his own “devil’s dictionary” humor book, Bill holds law degrees from New York University and University of Grenoble (France). He is Vice President of the American Foreign Law Association, a former chair of the New York City Bar Association Committee on Foreign and Comparative Law and former Board member of the Global Sourcing Council, a trade association for sustainability practices in cross-border services. He is an active member of the American Bar Association (International Section), International Bar Association, the International Technology Law Association and the French-American Chamber of Commerce and Organisation Mondiale des Experts-Conseils-Arbitres.
In March 2019, Bill was the IBA’s observer at the UNCITRAL Working Group I’s session in New York City on the development of legislative frameworks for contract-based networks, as alternatives to entity-based frameworks. Such networks serve as ecosystems and platforms for growth of entrepreneurial enterprises, varying with models for hierarchical (vertical), territorial (horizontal) and diaspora collaboration. Networks may be integrated via Internet platform, face-to-face or hybrid. Bill’s report is scheduled for publication in the IBA’s International Business Lawyer in September 2019.
