William A. Muñoz

William A. Muñoz is a Partner and Office Co-Chair of Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP's Sacramento office. He is also Co-Chair of the firm's Lawyers Professional Liability national practice team. Mr. Muñoz is a civil trial attorney and third-party neutral with over 25 years of experience defending attorneys, and other professionals such as architects and engineers, real estate agents/brokers, real estate appraisers, and insurance brokers, as well as defending personal injury, toxic torts, products liability, defamation, wrongful termination/harassment, wage and hour and discrimination claims.

Mr. Muñoz is a certified specialist in Legal Malpractice Law by the California State Board of Specialization and is currently a member of the California State Bar Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (“COPRAC”) where the Committee interprets and issues opinions regarding legal ethics and the California Rules of Professional Conduct. Mr. Muñoz also serves as an arbitrator for the State Bar’s Mandatory Fee Arbitration program.  Mr. Muñoz previously served as the Chair for the Legal Malpractice Law Advisory Commission for the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization responsible for preparing and grading the legal malpractice legal specialization examination as well as assessing the qualifications of potential applicants seeking the legal malpractice law specialization designation and recertification. He has presented locally and nationally on issues of legal malpractice, conflicts of interests and legal ethics and currently has a quarterly column in the Association of Defense Counsel for Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment entitled “The Lawyer’s Lawyer” addressing issues of legal malpractice avoidance and legal ethics. Mr. Muñoz acts as an expert witness on ethical issues and standard of care issues in legal malpractice and attorney-client fee disputes.

Mr. Munoz also has an active employment litigation practice representing employers in claims for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, retaliation, race, gender, religious, age, pregnancy, and disability discrimination.  His employment practice also includes defending employers regarding wage and hour and pay stub violations and miscellaneous torts such as defamation claims.

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California

Nevada

• Getting Back to the Basics, published in The Lawyer’s Lawyer section of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 2020.
• Business Transactions with Clients – A Trap for the unwary Practitioner, published in The Lawyer’s Lawyer section of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 34, No. 3, Fall 2019.
• Getting Back to the Basics – Ethical Implications of Representing Multiple Defendants, published in The Lawyer’s Lawyer section of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 34, No. 2, Summer 2019.
• California’s Rules of Professional Conduct Makeover, published in The Lawyer’s Lawyer section of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 33, No. 3, Fall 2018.
• Disengagement Letters – Ending the Relationship, published in The Lawyer’s Lawyer section of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 33, No. 2, Summer 2018
• Conflict Waivers – Why Do We Need Them?, published in The Lawyer’s Lawyer section of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2018.
• You Have Landed the Client, Now What? Formulating the Attorney-Client Relationship, published in the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 32, No. 2, Summer 2017.
• To Accept or Not to Accept a New Client, published in the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring 2017.
• Defending Legal Malpractice Claims in California and Nevada – A Day at the Beach or Stranded in the Desert?, published in the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada’s Defense Comment, Spring 2015.
• Cassel v. Superior Court – The California Supreme Court Rejects Attorney Malpractice Exception to Mediation Confidentiality published in the March 14, 2011 edition of the Defense Research Institute’s Professional Liability Committee quarterly electronic newsletter Riding the E & O Line, and Westlaw Journal, Professional Liability, Volume 21, Issue A (September 2011).
• How Far May a State Labor Law Reach?, In-House Defense Quarterly for the Defense Research Institute, Winter 2012

• Williams v. Sacramento River City Baseball Club, LLC (2019) 40 Cal.App.5th 280 – holding that there is no Tameny wrongful refusal to hire claim based upon race
• Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians v. Crosby, et al. 2016 WL 6094468 (E.D.Cal. Oct. 19, 2016) – Motion to dismiss complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) granted with prejudice for clients
• Brazill v. California Northstate College of Pharmacy, LLC, 949 F.Supp.2d 1011, United States District Court, E.D. California, June 5, 2013 — Motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P 12(b)(6) granted on Plaintiff’s False Claims Act
• Seabright Insurance Company v. US Airways, Inc., 52 Cal.4th 590, 129 Cal.Rptr.3d 601, Supreme Court of California, August 22, 2011 — amicus curiae Air Transport Association, Inc. on behalf of Respondent U.S. Airways
• Riley v. Giguiere, et al., 631 F.Supp.2d 1295, United States District Court, E.D. California, June 19, 2009 — Partial summary judgment granted on claims against attorney for alleged violations of Fair Debt Collections Practices Act

• Defense Research Institute
• American Bar Association
• Association of Defense Counsel for Northern California and Nevada
• Association of Professional Liability Attorneys
• Sacramento County Bar Association

• Super Lawyers, Professional Liability 2012-2021
• Super Lawyers, ADR, 2022-2023
• Recognized in Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyer List in 2017 under Insurance.
• Recognized in Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyer List in 2016 and 2019 as the sole attorney under Professional Malpractice and one of six attorneys recognized under Legal Malpractice.

• “Obtaining Resolution/Settlement in the Nuclear Verdict Era,” FMG Webinar co-presented with Jennifer Markowski and Jody Cappello, October 5, 2023
• Mediation Boot Camp co-presented with Peter Linn to the law firms of Boutin Jones, Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney, and Hoge Fenton; September 20, 2022, September 28, 2022, and November 16, 2022, respectively
• You are Not Immune: Avoiding Malpractice Claims by Carriers, Association of Defense Counsel for northern California and Nevada Summer Session, August 25-26, 2022
• Ethical implications of Working Remotely webinar presented to Somach, Simmons & Dunn, May 24, 2022
• Encountering Difficult or Deceptive Clients: What are My Options?, webinar presented with Daniel Sharp and Arie Eee, sponsored by the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, January 28, 2022
• Ethical Traps for the Unwary Practitioner: Successive and Concurrent Representation, webinar presented with Christine Henry, sponsored by Association of Defense Counsel for Northern California and Nevada Annual Meeting, December 10, 2021
• Is this a Conflict? Ethical Traps That Could Surprise You, webcast presented with Alison Buchanan, sponsored by ALI CLE, January 10, 2019
• Understanding Human Resources Role in a Lawsuit, Co-Presented with Nathan T. Jackson, Webinar for Sacramento Area Human Resources Association (SAHRA), August 29, 2018
• Conflicts of Interest: Navigating the Perils of Joint Representation, co-presented with Alison Buchanan, sponsored by Lawyers’ Mutual Insurance Company, October 2017
• Enforceability of Advance Conflict Waivers, Presented at Argo Pro Lawyers’ Professional Liability Conference, Las Vegas, NV, June 28 – 29, 2017
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: 2016 Professional Liability in Review, Presented at Defense Research institute Professional Liability Conference, New York, NY, December 8-9, 2016
• Trying a Case and Strategies for Handling Legal Malpractice Cases: Emerging Trial Issues, New Defenses and Novel Ideas, and a Brief Examination of Circumstances under which It Can Be Appropriate to Admit Negligence?, Presented at American Conference Institute’s Advanced Forum on LPL/Legal Malpractice, New York, NY, October 24-25, 2016
• Preserving the Intrafirm Privilege in a Subsequent Legal Malpractice Action, presented to the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys annual conference, San Francisco, CA, 2015
• Understanding Cyber Risk and Your LMIC Policy, Co-presented with Simone McCormick, sponsored by Lawyers’ Mutual Insurance Company, Burbank, CA, July 2015
• Legal Issues with Background Screening, webinar presented by Strafford Publishing’s Security Teleconference addressing the implications of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in pre-employment screening and background checks, 2011
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Reductions in Force, co-presented for the CalSAE addressing best practices with reductions in force in the workplace, 2011
• Discovery: Planning, Strategy & Dealing with Abusive Discovery Tactics, July 2008, and Getting the Most out of Discovery, July 2009, Continuing Education of the Bar Committee