William (Bill) Johnson joined Chicago Title in late 2024 as Underwriting Counsel after a 37-year career in private practice with Nesper, Ferber, DiGiacomo, Johnson & Grimm. Bill’s private practice focused on commercial and residential real estate, title insurance, commercial loan transactions, and representing volunteer fire companies. In his real estate work, Bill represented clients buying and selling business properties and homes as well as regional and national mortgage lenders. Further supplementing Bill's real estate work is his skill in examining title to real estate and his ability to write title insurance as an agent or examining counsel for title insurance companies.
In representing a number of volunteer fire companies, Bill has dealt with real estate and construction projects, internal governance, purchasing of firefighting vehicles and tax-exempt loan transactions. He also has prior experience in estate planning, estate administration, and representing secured lenders in state court and bankruptcy court. For several years, Bill has served as Co-Editor of the New York Real Property Law Journal of the New York State Bar Association. Bill also represented Habitat for Humanity in Buffalo for several years.
As a member of the Bar Association of Erie County, Bill has been a member of the Surrogate's Court Committee and for three years served as chairman of the Real Property Law Committee, coordinating real estate practices and educational issues for local attorneys. Bill has lectured for the Bar Association of Erie County, the New York State Bar Association and for the National Business Institute. He is also involved with various civic organizations and is married with three adult children.