Bill has worked in private practice for over 35 years in various sectors (including banking, entertainment, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications) mainly in advertising and marketing where data, often personal information, is key. He is recognized as a leading Canadian regulatory lawyer in peer-reviewed rankings such as Chambers and Partners and Lexpert.

Bill recently left a major Toronto law firm to establish HearnLaw and focus on privacy, data protection, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, especially regarding public policy development and law reform. He acts for individuals, governments, civil society, think tanks, businesses and industry associations. His representative work includes leading teams of lawyers and experts in advising:

(1) the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in litigation against Waterfront Toronto, Toronto, Ontario and Canada relating to Google’s affiliate Sidewalk Labs’ proposed project to build a smart city at Quayside;

(2) Ontario on its proposed provincial private sector privacy law;

(3) since its founding by Jim Balsillie in 2018, the Center for Digital Rights (CDR) in many submissions on modernizing laws for privacy, data protection, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to Canadian governments and privacy commissioners (both federal and provincial, including Alberta, British Columbia (BC) and Ontario) and to other liberal democracies around the world; and

(4) CDR and three BC residents in privacy complaints to the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner and in litigation currently before the BC Court of Appeal applying BC’s Personal Information Protection Act to Canada’s federal Liberal, Conservative, and New Democratic parties when operating in BC.

Bill is a graduate of the University of Toronto, B.A. (1983) and LL.B. (1986) and Cambridge University, LL.M. (1989).