About

Bill Henchy received his B.A. from Tufts University in 1981, cum laude, and his Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School in 1984. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 1985. 

Bill was trying criminal cases before he completed law school, and tried his first Jury case before he was admitted to the Bar as a student prosecutor in the Middlesex County District Attorney's office. Shortly after being admitted to the Bar, he was engaged by the District Attorney for the Cape and Islands, serving as a Special Assistant District Attorney for three years. He has tried hundreds of criminal matters as both a prosecutor and as a defense attorney.

In addition, Bill has had a notable career in government, civil litigation, and fisheries and environmental litigation. He served as the Co-Chair of the Brewster Conservation Commission for over a decade, and was the author of the very first local Wetlands Protection Regulations to be adopted in Massachusetts. He served as a Selectman in the Town of Brewster for two terms, and has served on numerous other boards and committees, including the first Blue Ribbon Commission to examine the workings of the Cape Cod Commission and make recommendations to improve the services provided by that Regional Land Use agency. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce appointed Bill as a technical advisor to the U.S. ICCAT Advisory Committee.

Deeply committed to preserving the Environment, Bill is a past Director of the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod and the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

Bill Henchy has litigated to conclusion a number of landmark environmental cases, including the first case under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act to regulate Off-Road Vehicles and protect rare shorebirds, the landmark decision by the Supreme Judicial Court that determined the limits to the public right to engage in aquaculture in tidal flats under the Colonial Ordinances of 1641-1647, the groundbreaking Amendment 13 Federal Fisheries litigation in the United States District Court in Washington D.C., and the recent decision by the Supreme Judicial Court considering for the first time the limitations on the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's power under the Massachusetts Water Management Act (the Oral Argument of that case before the Supreme Judicial Court may be viewed here).

Bill has drafted Legislation which has resulted in the creation of the Upper Cape Regional Water Supply Cooperative, providing safe drinking water to the communities of Bourne, Sandwich, Mashpee and Falmouth as compensation by the United States for decades of groundwater contamination at the Massachusetts Military Reservation. He represented the Mashpee Water District continuously for over 30 years, and has been Special Counsel to a number of communities, including the Town of Wellesley, the town of Bridgewater, the Welfleet Conservation Commission, the Sandwich Water District, the Bourne Water District and others.

Bill Henchy has served as the attorney-coach for the Massachusetts Bar Association's Mock Trial Program for Cape Cod Academy from 2001-2015, and his team was was regularly the Cape & Islands division winner. He lives with his wife of over 35 years who is also a litigation paralegal, and they have two grown sons. As time allows, Bill enjoys offshore fishing and the natural beauty of Cape Cod.