William C. Cole - Of Counsel
Bill is an experienced, creative, collaborative, practical, strategic, hard-working and service-oriented business lawyer. Bill fully embraces his business clients’ legal needs and issues as his own, which is a unique attribute that distinguishes him from his peers. Bill's practice focuses on business and financial transactions, with an emphasis in business mergers, acquisitions and strategic ventures, commercial lending, securities, securitization, structured finance, real estate, entity formation, contracts, credit recovery, legal opinions, and other general business planning matters. Bill also has extensive commercial litigation experience which compliments his business practice.
Bill began his legal career in San Diego as a commercial litigator at Baker & McKenzie, a prestigious international law firm. Bill moved to Boise in 1993 for "quality of life" reasons when he joined a prominent Idaho law firm and continued his commercial litigation practice.
Prior to law school, Bill was a Cost Estimator at General Dynamics Corporation where he performed pricing profitability analyses, prepared cost estimates and proposals and conducted presentations and price negotiations for multi-million dollar satellite space launch services contracts, including an $80 million contract with NASA and a $27 million contract with the U.S. Air Force.
For seven years prior to joining Givens Pursley as a partner, Bill was in-house General Counsel and Vice President for AMRESCO Commercial Finance, Inc., a Boise-based commercial finance company that funded, securitized, and serviced, over 1.8 billion dollars in complex commercial finance transactions. As General Counsel, Bill was responsible for all of the legal affairs of the company, a responsibility that he accomplished through closing transactions and resolving legal issues on a direct, hands-on basis, as well as through managing a department of in-house attorneys and attorneys at law firms throughout the country.
Bill was also extensively involved in the business aspects of the company. This business experience, combined with Bill's experience in managing legal counsel, has provided him with a unique, practical perspective of the legal needs facing business clients and what they expect of their attorneys. This unique perspective, together with Bill's extensive transactional and litigation experience, makes him particularly qualified to handle the legal needs of business clients.
Bill has been married for 29 years to his college sweetheart and has three delightful daughters. Bill’s free time focuses on his family, church, and outdoor recreational hobbies.
Recognition
- Best Lawyers in America - Real Estate Law
- Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business - Band 1 (top listing) for Corporate/Commercial
- Martindale-Hubbell – Highest Ranking (AV)
- Mountain States Super Lawyers - Business/Corporate (awarded to less than 5% of lawyers in the Mountain West)
Education
- J.D., University of San Diego School of Law, 1991 - cum laude, Lead Articles Editor, San Diego Law Review
- B.S., Northern Arizona University, 1986 - summa cum laude (4.0/4.0)
Admissions
- Idaho
- California (inactive)
- U.S. District Court (Idaho, Southern California)
Memberships & Affiliations
- Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, Former Board of Director Member and Member of Public Policy Committee
- Member of Idaho State Bar Real Property Section
- Member of Idaho State Bar Business & Corporate Law Section
Volunteer and Pro Bono Activities
- providing extensive pro bono legal services, counseling and advocacy regarding health care issues and education, clinical trials, and health insurance coverage to individuals with rare autoimmune diseases
- Director and Member of the Public Policy Committee, Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce January 2011 – 2015
- Member, Bond Committee and School Calendar Committee, West Ada School District (The largest school district in Idaho.) January 2005
- Director, Lexington Hills Homeowners Association (a subdivision with 634 homes and a budget of $500,00/year) January 1998 – December 2000
- Attorney, Counselor, and Advocate: Medical Services and Health Insurance, Pro Bono Legal Services January 2012 – Present:
- Of Counsel, Givens Pursley LLP (2019-Present)
- Partner, Givens Pursley LLP (2002 - 2019)
- Previous Director of Givens Pursley’s Board of Partners
- Vice President and General Counsel, AMRESCO Commercial Finance, Inc., Boise, Idaho (January 1996 - July 2002)
- Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley, Boise, Idaho (December 1993 - December 1995)
- Baker & McKenzie, San Diego, California (October 1991 - November 1993)
- Cost Estimator and Financial Analyst, General Dynamics, Space Systems Division, San Diego, California (July 1986 - August 1988)
- William C. Cole, Tom E. Dvorak, & Kelly G. McConnell, Idaho Foreclosure Law and Related Remedies, in FORECLOSURE LAW AND RELATED REMEDIES: STATE CHAPTER BUNDLE B (American Bar Association 2nd ed., 2009)
- Presented at a seminar sponsored by the Risk Management Association and Givens Pursley LLP on Distressed Loans - Issues in Creditors Rights and Workouts (July 22, 2010)