William T. Nagle

William T. Nagle has over 25 years of experience in representing clients across the United States and around the world. Before joining Bowles & Verna in 2001, Mr. Nagle practiced law in San Francisco with Celebrezze & Wesley, an insurance coverage boutique law firm. He currently represents manufacturers in both product liability lawsuits and commercial litigation matters. Mr. Nagle has been recognized as a Super Lawyer for his work in product liability.

Mr. Nagle’s practice includes defense of design defect claims, supply agreement disputes, trade secret issues, product recalls, contract drafting, negotiation and Prop 65 litigation. He also handles real estate litigation, insurance coverage matters, defense of employment claims and claims under collective bargaining agreements.

Mr. Nagle has tried and arbitrated more than 25 cases. Mr. Nagle has experience handling consumer product recalls on behalf of American and Taiwanese manufacturing companies in many countries including the U.S., UK, Argentina, Brazil, Singapore, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. 

Mr. Nagle continues to manage the defense of several different manufacturing defect claims in various jurisdictions in the last 5 years such as New York, Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, Arizona, Georgia, Washington and throughout California. The product liability matters have included personal injury matters involving heavy equipment and various claims dealing with compressed gases such as propane, helium, and hydrogen.

Mr. Nagle has a wide array of experience litigating disputes in federal and state courts, as well as federal and state courts of appeal. Mr. Nagle has also represented clients with contract disputes and international interests in Afghanistan and Taiwan. 

Personal Information

Mr. Nagle was born in San Francisco and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of his life. He has been happily married to Sharon Nagle for almost 30 years after meeting her on the first day of law school. Sharon and Bill raised three children in the East Bay and were actively involved in their school, swim club, and sporting activities. Mr. Nagle is an avid beach volleyball player who takes advantage of every opportunity to play. 

Highlights of Mr. Nagle’s Experience

• Represented a U.S. manufacturer in a two-month jury trial in December and January of 2022/2023 arising from a product defect claim. The matter was successfully resolved before closing arguments.
• Successfully defended an attempt at consolidation of multiple product defect actions before the Multidistrict Litigation Panel and obtained an order denying the centralization of various actions pending in different states. See, In re Bernzomatic & Worthington Branded Handheld Torch Prods. Liab. Litig., 410 F. Supp. 3d 1355 (MDL 2019).
• Representation of a U.S. manufacturing client in a worldwide recall of propane cylinders, including in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
• Trial team member engaged in a two-week trial that resulted in the dismissal of a multimillion-dollar products liability case.
• Trial team member engaged in a three-month trial over a high exposure trade secret misappropriation claim.
• Conducted audits of manufacturing sites for a U.S. manufacturer at different manufacturing facilities to evaluate implementation of additional quality control procedures, revision of warnings, and revision of owner manuals for the purpose of reducing occurrences of accidents and mitigating against consumer class action lawsuits.
• Prevailed on summary judgment in favor of a propane cylinder manufacturer for two separate actions in the last three years seeking millions in damages in Orange County and Los Angeles County Superior Courts.
• Dismissal of a California class action seeking millions in compensation by successfully asserting that the California 5-year statute for bringing a claim to trial had lapsed.