William L Dwyer

The late William L. Dwyer was a trial lawyer for 30 years before he was appointed United States Distict Judge for the Western District of Washington in 1987 by Ronald Reagan. As a lawyer he handled State of Washington v. American League<i>, which led to the creation of the Seattle Mariners. As a judge he presided over, among other cases, the nation's first homicide trial under federal product tampering law (two deaths by cyanide poisoning) and the case establishing a conservation plan for the spotted owl. Dwyer also designed and taught a course, "The History and Philosophy of Litigation," at the University of Washington School of Law. His previous book, The Goldmark Case: An American Libel Trial, won an American Bar Association Gavel Award and a Governor's Award for Writers in the State of Washington. In June 2001, the University of Washington School of Law established the William L. Dwyer Chair in Law.