Wilbert V. Farrell IV

Bill Farrell serves on the Firm’s Board of Directors and is a member of the Litigation practice group. He focuses upon advocating for his business clients and individual clients to efficiently resolve their disputes.

Bill has developed a complex civil litigation practice wherein he routinely represents businesses and individuals in disputes focusing on business torts, appeals, commercial, financial services, partnership, and real estate disputes, and other complex contract and tort claims. Bill is also a Co-Chairperson of the Firm’s Trust, Estate, & Probate Litigation practice, prosecuting and defending actions and claims involving trustees, executors, and beneficiaries in trust and probate disputes and other fiduciary-related litigation. He counsels clients on all aspects of trust, estate, probate, and beneficiary-designation disputes, including investigating potential claims, evaluating the merits of bringing a claim or defending a claim, and litigating a claim through resolution. Bill has successfully handled cases for a wide range of clients including trustees, executors, administrators, other fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and family limited partnerships. Throughout his career, Bill has handled actions from inception to resolution in state and federal courts around the country.

Bill’s abilities are evidenced by his representation of:

• An insurer seeking to recover claims paid by commercial property insurers in a $5 billion subrogation action arising from the 9/11 terrorist attack, resulting in a highly-favorable confidential settlement.
• Numerous trustees/executors and beneficiaries in several family trust and estate disputes, with an emphasis on family trust/partnership litigation, resulting in multiple favorable resolutions.
• Plaintiff classes in Iowa and Wisconsin in indirect purchaser antitrust class actions, where Plaintiffs alleged that a major software company had illegally monopolized and engaged in unreasonable restraints of trade for its operating system and productivity application software. Cases in both Iowa – following three months of trial – and Wisconsin resulted in advantageous settlements.
• Plaintiffs in a nationwide class action involving trespass claims brought by land owners against telecommunications carriers and railroads related to the installation of fiber optic cable along railroad rights-of-way.
• A homeowners’ association in a dispute within an adjacent retail association, resulting in a favorable decision from the trial court to enforce a contested settlement agreement, later affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
• A real estate developer in business partnership dispute litigation, resulting in favorable settlement.
• Minority shareholders in a multi-party action and dispute with majority shareholders resulting in a favorable buyout of the minority shareholders by the majority shareholders.

Bill and his family returned home to Northeast Ohio following several years spent practicing in Minneapolis. He is a member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Lorain County Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Hennepin County, Minnesota Bar Association, the Minnesota State Bar Association, and the John Carroll University Ambassadors Program.