Bill Kroener is Senior Counsel to the Firm based in the Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles offices. His practice has focused on the supervision and regulation of financial institutions and their advisers, and has encompassed domestic and international activities, acquisitions, financings and other transactions.
Mr. Kroener served as General Counsel of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 1995 to 2006. He also served on and chaired the Legal Advisory Committee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) and has been a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Supervision Modernization. He was among the principal organizers of and is an active participant in the FDIC’s alumni association.
Mr. Kroener is widely recognized as a leading practitioner in financial services law. He has been listed as a leading lawyer in Banking Law in The Best Lawyers in America (“Lawyer of the Year” in 2021 for financial services regulation law in Los Angeles), Chambers USA, The International Who’s Who of Banking Lawyers (one of 10 “Most Highly Regarded Individuals” in 2010) and listed as a Washington, D.C. “Super Lawyer” and “Best Lawyer,” and among Southern California’s “Top Rated Lawyers.”
Mr. Kroener has been active as a member of the banking law committees of the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association and other bar associations, co-chaired the ABA Presidential Task Force on Financial Markets Regulatory Reform (2008-12), chaired the Banking Law Committee of the ABA Business Law Section (2011-14), and was on the Council of the ABA Business Law Section (2014-18). He has been appointed Adviser to the ABA Business Law Section for 2024-25 on the basis of a “national reputation [as] a distinguished practitioner, teacher or governmental official in legal areas of interest to the Section’s committees.” He is a recipient of the Frank Simpson award for his service to the ABA Banking Law Committee and the Richard Peterson award from the Federal Bar Association Banking Law Section “for active involvement in landmark developments… affecting the banking and financial services industry.”
Mr. Kroener has lectured and written extensively on financial regulatory topics, has taught as an adjunct professor at Stanford, George Washington and American University Law Schools, for many years was on the editorial board of The Business Lawyer and has authored chapters on bank resolution in a series of books published by the Resolutions Project Group of Stanford’s Hoover Institution. From the late 1990s through the mid 2010s, he was a speaker at and on the faculty of Banking Law Basics, a three-day primer on banking law sponsored by ABA-CLE, and its successor program Banking Law Fundamentals. These programs have been presented twice annually for more than 25 years in San Francisco, Boston and other major U.S. cities, and have been attended by more than 1600 lawyers from the U.S. and abroad.
He has also participated as a control team member and judge for the Georgetown Law School National Security Crisis Law Invitational. Mr. Kroener was Managing Editor of the Stanford Law Review while in law school.
Mr. Kroener has been a director of banks and other financial intermediaries, as well as a member of the Regulatory Appeals Committee of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, and served on the Stanford Law School’s Board of Visitors and as National Chair of the Stanford Law Fund. He was a pro bono advisor in connection with the establishment of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Recovery Fund. He also has served on the Governing Board of St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. and on the Finance Committee of the Washington National Cathedral.
