For more than 30 years, Bill Hillhouse frequently was on the opposite side from Sandy White or the other White & Jankowski lawyers.   That relationship, based upon a mutual respect that grew over the years, evolved from near epic litigation over Colorado's interstate compact and in-state groundwater regulations in the Rio Grande Basin to other water rights litigation, transactions involving the purchase and sale of water rights and eventually to Bill's serving as an expert witness on water right matters for one of White & Jankowski's clients, the City of Thornton.   Finally, in 1999, Bill happily joined the firm.

Before joining White & Jankowski, Bill practiced water law at other Denver firms, served as an attorney for the National Water Commission and was a teaching fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.

Bill has tried or settled numerous cases in virtually every area of water law, including water rights adjudications, augmentation plans, exchanges, changes of water rights, disputes over the exportation of water, disputes over priorities, defense of state enforcement actions, groundwater regulation disputes, litigation over interstate compacts and water quality battles including hearings before the Water Quality Control Commission.   When he has not been involved in water litigation, Bill has pursued an active transactional practice in water rights, counseled clients about the development of water use plans, taught water law, and frequently written and spoken about the subject.   Bill also has litigated or settled a series of environmental and natural resources cases.   These cases have involved defense of air quality suits; eminent domain actions; litigation of Endangered Species Act disputes; defense of EPA and state environmental penalty suits; litigation of federal and state Clean Water Act issues; mining, oil and gas and timber disputes; the interpretation and application of NEPA and the ESA; soil and groundwater contamination disputes between private parties; and the defense of common law negligence, nuisance, trespass and toxic tort suits.

Bill is currently listed as a Colorado "Super Lawyer" and in The Best Lawyers in America.