William Powell is Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Before joining the Institute, he served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General at the Department of Justice, where he helped litigate cases in the Supreme Court on behalf of the federal government.  During the fellowship, he also argued a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  William previously served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to Judge Randolph D. Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  Before his clerkships, William served as a legal fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where he provided pro bono legal services to journalists and litigated press-freedom cases in state and federal courts.

William received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was a notes editor on the Yale Law Journal, a Coker Fellow, and a member of the capital punishment clinic.  Before law school, William worked for several years as a journalist.  He wrote magazine stories about the Ferguson protests, the death penalty, and homelessness, among many other topics.  He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri.