William Simpson is a partner in the Corporate practice of Paul Hastings. He focuses his practice on private equity, mergers and acquisitions and venture capital. He regularly represents owners and management groups in private equity transactions and he currently represents over 30 private equity backed companies and 10 private equity and other investment groups. He has handled approximately 250 mergers and acquisitions, including the sale of Linksys to Cisco and the sale of Pacific Scientific to Danaher.

Mr. Simpson serves as chair of the firm's Global Private Equity practice.  He has also formerly served as the chair of firm’s Orange County Office and Chair of the Business and Corporate Law Section of the Orange County Bar Association.

Mr. Simpson is listed in Chambers (USA) – “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” (one of only two Orange County corporate lawyers listed). He is also listed in “The Best Lawyers in America”, The Los Angeles Times “Southern California’s Best Lawyers,” and has been repeatedly named as a Top 50 Orange County “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics Magazine.

Mr. Simpson serves on the Board of Directors of South Central Scholars and the Orange County Venture Group.

Mr. Simpson received his B.A. degree, with high distinction, from the University of Virginia in 1976 and his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1979.