William W.

Horton

Position: Partner
Office: Birmingham

Bill Horton is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group and co-chairs the firm’s Healthcare Industry Team. He represents healthcare clients around the country on major transactions, compliance, and governance issues.

Bill maintains a national practice representing healthcare providers and other business enterprises in mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, securities and corporate finance law, regulatory compliance, and corporate governance matters. Prior to joining Jones Walker, Bill was a practice group leader at two other Birmingham-based law firms and served as general counsel of one of the nation’s largest publicly traded healthcare providers. He currently serves as head of the firm's Birmingham office.

Drawing on his substantial experience in private practice and as senior legal officer for a large public company, Bill has been involved in complex corporate finance and acquisition transactions in almost all sectors of the healthcare services industry. His background includes representation of issuers in securities offerings and periodic reporting, representation of borrowers in complex financing transactions, counseling healthcare providers on regulatory compliance, and representation of healthcare enterprises, financial services businesses, and other business clients in corporate governance matters, acquisition and divestiture transactions, joint ventures, venture investments, and other business transactions.

Bill has extensive experience in government and internal investigations. In addition, Bill is a certified mediator for the American Health Lawyers Association Dispute Resolution Service and regularly serves as a hearing officer for medical staff peer review hearings.

A nationally recognized speaker and author on healthcare, corporate and securities law, and professional responsibility topics, Bill also has held leadership positions for several years with the American Bar Association and the American Health Law Association, serving from 2015 to 2016 as Chair of the ABA Health Law Section. In 2016, he was honored by the AHLA Fraud and Abuse Practice Group with the Patricia Meador Leadership Award, and in 2021 he was named as a Fellow of the AHLA. In addition, he received the President’s Award from the National Board of Trial Advocacy in 2022.

In addition to his private practice, Bill serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and as a clinical associate professor at the School of Optometry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also serves as a faculty panelist for George Washington University's Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Corporate Compliance Program, a position he has held since the program’s inception in 2005, and as Editor-in-Chief of two major healthcare law publications. He served as the founding president of the National Board of Health Lawyers, a specialty certification organization.

Noteworthy

Publications

Presentations

Memberships

Alabama State Bar
American Bar Association
- Health Law Section: Section Delegate to ABA House of Delegates (2017–2023), Chair (2015–2016), Vice Chair (2013–2014), Secretary (2012–2013), Member, Governing Council (2009–2012), Co-Chair, Health Law and Policy Coordinating Committee (2009–2013), Co-Chair, Ethics and Professionalism Committee (2011–2012), Chair, Programs Executive Committee (2006–2009)
- Section of Business Law: Member, Committees on Federal Regulation of Securities, Audit Responses, Corporate Counsel, Corporate Documents and Process, Corporate Governance, Legal Opinions, White-Collar Crime, Health Law and Life Sciences, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Public Companies
- Center for Professional Responsibility: Member, Continuing Legal Education Committee (2012–2015)
- Section Officers Conference: CPR/SOC Professional Responsibility Committee (2009–2017), SOC Decennial Review Committee (2014–2015), SOC Executive Committee (2016–2022), SOC Liaison to Committee on Scope and Correlation of Work (2017–2019)
- Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education (2018–2021)
- Standing Committee on Publishing Oversight (2016–2018)
- Presidential Appointments Committee (2018–2019)
- Working Group on House of Delegates Operations (since 2020)
- Commission on Youth at Risk (since 2021)
- Nominating Committee (2021–2024)
American Bar Foundation, Life Fellow
American Health Law Association, Chair, Business Law and Governance Practice Group (2011–2014), Dispute Resolution Service Council (2014–2020), Editor-in-Chief, AHLA's Federal Healthcare Laws & Regulations (since 2009), AHLA Fellow (since 2021)
National Board of Health Lawyers, Founding President (2017–2020)
Ambulatory Surgery Center Association
Birmingham Bar Association
Health Care Fraud & Abuse: Practical Perspectives, Editor-in-Chief (since 2020)
Health Care Compliance Association
Kiwanis Club of Birmingham
National Board of Trial Advocacy, Board of Directors (since 2017)
National Board of Trial Advocacy Foundation, Founding Board of Directors (since 2020)
American Counsel Association
Newcomen Society of Alabama
Presbyterian Retirement Homes of Birmingham, Chair, Board of Directors (2014–2018)