About me
Bill Leach is a veteran trial lawyer who has tried nearly 100 cases to verdict in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and New Mexico. He has successfully tried jury cases for clients in the insurance, utility, trucking and transportation, securities, manufacturing and service industries, and concentrates his practice on insurance claims and coverage disputes, claims of bad faith against insurers, product liability defense, mass torts and class action litigation, multidistrict litigation, and complex business litigation.
In 1982, Bill began private practice in Texas and became one of the youngest attorneys to complete the requirements for dual certification in personal injury trial law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He returned to Oklahoma in 1990.
Bill regularly practices before all state and federal district courts in Oklahoma, including the northern, western and eastern districts. He has also tried cases in state courts in Kansas, Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico and several federal district courts in Texas. He has argued numerous appeals in the Fifth and Tenth Circuits, as well as several courts of appeal in Texas and the Supreme Court of Texas.
Bill currently serves as co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Group.
In addition to his litigation practice, Bill serves as an adjunct settlement judge in the Eastern District of Oklahoma and as an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at the University of Tulsa College of Law. He is also a frequent speaker and CLE teacher on trial practice and multiple substantive topics and is the recipient of two awards honoring outstanding contributions in the field of continuing legal education – the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Earl Sneed Award and the Tulsa County Bar Foundation’s Brunton-Will CLE Award.
His achievements as a trial lawyer have earned him induction in the American College of Trial Lawyers and inclusion in Benchmark Litigation,
Admissions
Texas, 1982
Oklahoma, 1990
U.S. District Courts for the Western,
Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma
U.S. District Courts for the Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas
U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Tenth Circuits
U.S. Supreme Court
Education
J.D., University of Oklahoma, 1982 Editor, Oklahoma Law Review; National Mock Trial Team; Phi Eta Sigma;
Co-Founder, Board of Advocates
B.S. (Political Science), Oklahoma State University, 1979
Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Best Lawyers (commercial litigation; insurance law; insurance litigation; mass torts litigation / class actions – defendants; personal injury litigation – defendants; product liability litigation – defendants) and Oklahoma Super Lawyers, in which he was also honored as one of the “Top 50 Oklahoma Lawyers.” He was selected by Best Lawyers as the “Tulsa Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions Defense Lawyer of the Year” for 2020, 2022, and 2025, “Tulsa Product Liability Defense Lawyer of the Year” for 2017, 2019 and 2025, and “Tulsa Personal Injury Defense Lawyer of the Year” for 2021, honors given to a single lawyer in each legal specialty in each market.
Prior to joining McAfee & Taft, Bill was a founding partner of Tulsa-based Eldridge Cooper Steichen & Leach, a partner with Tulsa-based Rhodes Hieronymus Jones Tucker & Gable, and a partner with Texas-based Gibson, Ochsner & Adkins.
