William J. Carney is a well-known author, lecturer, and teacher in corporate law. He is author of two leading casebooks—Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisitions—as well as several other books and more than 50 articles and book chapters.

Before coming to Atlanta, Professor Carney was a partner in the Denver firm of Holland & Hart and a professor at the University of Wyoming. He also has taught at the law schools of the universities of Michigan, NYU, Virginia, Antwerp, Belgium, the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, and Emory's American Law Center in Moscow. He has presented papers at conferences throughout the United States and Europe and taught in numerous continuing legal education programs. He holds a US patent application on a novel takeover defense.

Professor Carney served as chair of the Corporate Code Revision Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Corporate Section of the State Bar of Georgia. He is a board member and chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee of Pharmasset Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company.