Background and Experience
William L. Osterhoudt graduated from the University of Washington and Hastings College of the Law (Order of the Coif; Associate Editor, Hastings Law Journal), receiving a J.D. degree in 1968. Before attending law school he served as a U.S. Naval Officer attached to the Pacific Fleet.
Following graduation from law school, Mr. Osterhoudt became a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco, providing indigent criminal defense to persons charged with federal crimes prior to and during the advent of the federal defender program. He continued to act as an Assistant Federal Public Defender through 1971, when he entered private practice in San Francisco.
During his 40 years in practice, Mr. Osterhoudt has acquired extensive trial experience in cases ranging from “white collar” or business-related matters, RICO, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, false claims, banking and savings and loan violations, criminal copyright infringement, narcotics, and gang-related homicide and conspiracy allegations and international extraditions, to state and local homicide, assault and drug prosecutions, and vehicle code violations. He has been lead counsel in post-conviction habeas corpus proceedings in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in the state courts of California and Nevada. Outside of California, he has tried cases in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and has handled federal appeals in the Second, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits. He maintains a substantial appellate practice in the California Court of Appeal with its various appellate districts.
Professional Activities and Recognition
Mr. Osterhoudt is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of California, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Northern California Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, and the Bar Association of San Francisco. He has been profiled and recognized in various legal publications, including California Lawyer (“Top Picks: The Lawyers Lawyers Would Hire If They Got Busted”) [June 5, 2004], and the San Francisco Daily Journal. He has been listed in Naifeh & Smith, The Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White Inc., from 1987 until the present. Experienced in federal grand jury practice, he has contributed to Litigation (Journal of the ABA Section on Litigation) (“Representing the Grand Jury Witness,” Vol. 16, No. 2, Winter 1990).
Mr. Osterhoudt has served as a lawyer delegate to the Judicial Conference of the United States for the Ninth Circuit. He has been a speaker and seminar participant in numerous professional gatherings and training programs since the early 1970’s, including those sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute in San Francisco and New York, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, The National Association to Reform the Marijuana Laws, the National Lawyers Guild, and Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference seminars on Federal Law and Procedure. Mr. Osterhoudt has served on the faculty of numerous trial practice workshops, including those conducted at Stanford Law School, Cardozo Law School, Hastings College of the Law, and the University of San Francisco.
Admissions
Mr. Osterhoudt is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of California, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of California. He has been admitted to litigate and try individual cases before the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the District of Utah, the District of Nevada, the Middle District of Florida (Jacksonville), the Eastern District of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), and the District of Arizona.