Biglaw

Biglaw Partner Could Face A Felony Charge Following Boat Crash

Partner Douglas McWilliams is fighting back.

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Douglas McWilliams

A Vinson & Elkins retreat on the weekend of May 10th took a turn for the upsetting when several partners were involved in a boat crash on Lake Travis, Texas. Two of the firm’s attorneys had to be taken to the hospital to treat their injuries, and another, Douglas McWilliams, a partner in the Capital Market and Mergers & Acquisitions group, is facing a felony charge for leaving the scene of the accident.

A group of V&E attorneys were having dinner at McWilliams’s vacation home on the lake in advance of a corporate retreat the next day. At the end of the evening when they went to return to their hotel, they found their shuttle bus had mechanical troubles and McWilliams offered to take them back in his boat. During this journey, the boat crashed onto land, near a place ominously called Graveyard Point.

During the accident, McWilliams was thrown from the boat. He says he left the scene to get help for his injured colleagues, since cell phone service was poor. McWilliams was not heard from for five hours following the crash — police had even begun a search for him. According to a report from the Austin American-Statesman, investigators are characterizing it as “suspect fled the location.”

“Suspect’s time at the scene after the collision was so brief that the victims and witnesses involved were uncertain if they even saw the suspect after the crash,” [parks and wildlife investigator Adam Alvarez in an arrest affidavit] wrote. “These uncertain reports led emergency personnel to search the surrounding water and to check for suspect’s body.”

McWilliams says he must have passed out, and that accounts for the missing time:

“After finding out what time it was when EMS arrived, I believe I must have fainted or passed out for several hours from the combination of extreme pain I was under, the shock of the accident and the incredible stress I was under,” McWilliams wrote in a statement. “It’s the only explanation I can think of to account for the amount of time that passed before finally finding a place where I could call 911.”

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The arrest warrant also notes that, according to interviews, “the suspect had been drinking” prior to the crash. But McWilliams has fought back against that claim in a statement about the charge. He has also provided multiple affidavits — include from the firm’s chairman — saying he was not drunk that night.

In his statement, McWilliams said, “I was not hiding from anyone as I had nothing to hide. I was not intoxicated when the wreck occurred, or for that matter, at any time during the night, and it’s ridiculous and insulting to me to suggest that I’d run and hide while my colleagues were suffering in an attempt to avoid responsibility for anything.”

A warrant was issued for McWilliams’s arrest but withdrawn to allow him to go on a previously scheduled trip abroad. McWilliams’s attorney has requested the district attorney’s office independently evaluate the charge against his client.

UPDATE: Additional details about the accident, along with a lengthy statement from McWilliams’s lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer Brian Roark of Botsford & Roark, are available at Law.com. Also, some Above the Law readers might remember McWilliams from this 2016 story in our pages, A Lateral-Partner Mess Down In Texas.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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