With a distinguished career in the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service and with China and government experience dating back to 1976, managing partner William C. McCahill, Jr. is an authority on Chinese government and politics.  As former Charge d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Mr. McCahill played a key role in concluding the 1999 WTO U.S.-China Bilateral Trade Agreement. Earlier phases of his China service saw him doing political, commercial, and economic work in Hong Kong and Beijing, just as Sino-American diplomatic relations were normalized and China's economic reforms began.

 

Before joining JL McGregor & Company, Mr. McCahill was the senior international business advisor of the law firm WilmerHale, where he helped foreign companies overcome the challenges and complexities of doing business in China. Client matters ranged from intellectual property rights protection and medical publishing to securing Chinese cabinet approval for a Fortune 100 company's investment in a flagship Chinese enterprise.

 

In other diplomatic experience, Mr. McCahill ran the American missions in Oslo and Quebec, served as executive assistant to then NATO Secretary General Lord Carrington, and worked in the secretary of state's staff under Secretaries Haig and Shultz.

 

Mr. McCahill speaks Chinese, French, and Norwegian, and has used those languages in numerous media appearances abroad. He holds an AB from Boston College and completed graduate studies in Sanskrit, South Asian studies, and the history of religion at Harvard University.