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After starting his legal career at Williams & Connolly doing a range of litigation and more, Bill Childs traded the courtroom for the classroom. For eight years, he went on to teach legal courses and dove into litigation scholarship as a member of the Western New England University faculty. He believes that experience has shaped him into the leader he is today.
“I really loved the time in the classroom, and I believe some of the skills I developed there have been helpful in-house,” says Childs, who currently serves as assistant general counsel and head of litigation at Solventum, an American healthcare company spun off from 3M.
“I think I’m better at explaining complex legal topics to nonlawyers because I did it for so many years. I also really like writing and getting to have a voice on things in the public sphere,” he says. “The people who do litigation the best are those with curiosity and want to dive down every little rabbit hole, and I liked how teaching afforded me those opportunities.”
Childs took those learnings back into private practice at Bowman and Brooke in Austin, Texas, where he covered all aspects of a fast-paced national litigation practice as a senior counsel and partner. By 2019, he was ready for a new challenge.
“I had experienced most things in the litigation world,” he says. “I thought it would be interesting to take on the challenge of being an interface between outside lawyers and inside business partners.”
And so, he started looking around. That’s when an opportunity to work at 3M arose. Childs, whose parents had worked for the company for eighteen years, was immediately drawn to it.
“The company had great products and overall was just an interesting organization,” he says. “I thought it would be a fun challenge to learn how the business operates, how they think about risk, and to use the opportunity to explain topics to nonlawyers.”
Solventum spun off from 3M in April 2024, and it now develops, manufactures, and commercializes a broad portfolio of solutions that leverages deep material science, data science, and digital capabilities to address customer and patient needs. Those solutions assist healthcare clients with areas like IV site management, advanced wound care, surgical patient management, sterilization assurance, and more.
“The spin-off was to make it so we had strong leaders focused on this business. We fit well at 3M, but a healthcare company is a bit different from the other things 3M does,” says Childs, who is the company’s first head of litigation. “We have been fortunate to inherit a lot of knowledge from our parent company and at the same time, start from scratch like a startup. It’s been exciting.”
Childs has focused his time on helping the spin-off establish policies and procedures and improving legal through diversity, inclusion, and engagement initiatives. That has included forming strong partnerships with outside firms and making sure they are recruiting and retaining diverse individuals.
“The people who do litigation the best are those with curiosity and want to dive down every little rabbit hole, and I liked how teaching afforded me those opportunities.”
Bill Childs
The leader and his team have also been deliberating on ways to leverage technology to improve legal services. Childs describes their approach as being “cautious and intentional,” especially as they consider emerging technology like artificial intelligence (AI).
“I’m old enough to have heard about different technologies that were supposed to revolutionize the practice of law like blockchain, Bitcoin, and the like. Most have not while some of them have,” he explains. “As far as AI goes, there’s a lot of things people say it can do that haven’t been tested, and some AI-generated content that isn’t that impressive. However, I’ve seen promising ways to use it in arenas like deposition analysis. I’m open to seeing how it can be used and right now, I’m optimistically skeptical about it.”
Outside of his in-house work, Childs hosts a radio show, is a record label owner, an adjunct professor at two law schools, and has written a book called Recreation and Risk, which explores the law through recreational businesses like amusement parks, water parks, haunted houses, and more. It’s hard to imagine how the leader balances all those roles with his day job. For him, it’s pretty simple.
“I don’t sleep as much as I should,” Childs jokes. “I love deep dives, I don’t like sitting around, and when I do, I get bored. So, I create a class, or I write books.”
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP:
“Bill thinks strategically and creatively, leads generously, and sweats the small stuff that matters—like finding a particularly persuasive exhibit or perfect phrase to illuminate a brief. We look forward to working with him at Solventum!”
–Margaret Oertling Cupples, Partner
“Beyond his extraordinary legal acumen and leadership, Bill has sharp awareness of current events, deep appreciation of music, literature and arts, a keen sense of humor and incredible communication skills — all traits that set him apart.”
–Dan Adams, Partner
