William Pletcher is a nationally recognized consumer advocate who has recently joined Consumer Watchdog as Litigation Director, where he helps lead the organization’s legal battles to hold powerful corporations accountable and protect Californians from unlawful, fraudulent, and unfair business practices and government abuses. He recently received the California Lawyers Association’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section’s Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Award for 2025 for his leadership in consumer protection statewide, and the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association’s 2023 Investigation of the Year Award as part of a team that prosecuted nationwide COVID-19 testing fraud.
This past spring, he helped lead the Consumer Watchdog legal team’s successful opposition to State Farm’s emergency rate hike, securing major relief for policyholders by seeing that the emergency request was reduced nearly $400 million in a high-stakes regulatory hearing. He is also directing the organization’s ongoing legal support for those impacted by the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, including efforts to help ensure fair payment for smoke and ash damage and to block the FAIR Plan’s unlawful attempt to shift wildfire costs onto consumers. Will also co-authored Consumer Watchdog’s recent amicus brief in federal litigation challenging President Trump’s unconstitutional use of emergency powers to impose tariffs—contributing to district court rulings that blocked the tariffs as unconstitutional. The appeals to these rulings are ongoing.
His past work includes winning a $243 million judgment against a predatory student loan servicer, helping secure a $26 million healthcare fraud settlement over fake COVID-19 testing, and obtaining full restitution and product reformulation in a landmark false advertising case against a vitamin manufacturer for the presence of heavy metals in prenatal supplements. He also helped lead efforts to secure restitution and injunctive relief for victims of fraudulent solar sales schemes targeting low-income homeowners and led a joint enforcement action with the California Attorney General’s Office that hold an online platform accountable for violations of children’s privacy rights under COPPA and the CCPA.
Previously, Will served as a Deputy Attorney General, where he was recognized by then–Attorney General Kamala Harris with Attorney General’s Awards for his trial work and his roles in landmark settlements, including the $15 billion Volkswagen diesel emissions case, a $500 million emissions fraud settlement with Fiat Chrysler, and a $50 million debt collection settlement with Chase Bank.
He earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law & Policy Review, and graduated summa cum laude with honors in the liberal arts from Ohio State University. He clerked for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and brings deep experience in complex litigation, public law, and consumer advocacy.
