Native By: Candice Wiener
Notable Old School Vegas Families That Shaped Las Vegas
The Late Real William Bill Terry There are so many magnificent words anyone could and would use to describe the Honorable William Bill Terry. He was one of the big-time old school Las Vegas attorneys whose reputation was larger than life, but he was about as humble as they come! Hearing of his passing away on January 15th, 2021, I was instantly filled with sadness and sorrow for his family and everyone that knew and loved him. I was quickly brought to tears as I recollected my own experiences with Bill and what an incredible attorney and human being this man was. Then, later reading the comments and many locals’ memories about Bill and his sound character brought me to tears once again. Having been related to another old school, powerhouse attorney, my late Grandfather, Mr. Louis Wiener, I was already well aware of Bill’s phenomenal stature within the Las Vegas legal community. I knew him to be one of the best attorneys in town and I recalled watching the entire Binion trial on TV when I was pregnant while I was house and
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dog sitting for my uncle and aunt at that time. I immediately admired
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his business acumen in the courthouse and starred in
27th, 2017, I
awe of how intelligent he was and how savvy he was at
contacted Mr. Bill Terry’s office
representing his clients. It was my personal opinion that
based on an urgent personal situation that arose with
his defendant was guilty; and having met her months
a family member. His receptionist assured me that he’d
prior at Ted Binion’s home, I definitely didn’t have a
be in the office within about an hour and would call me
good first impression about his defendant. But I couldn’t
back. It was less than 15 minutes, and I got the return
not admire his tenacity in fighting for her whether he
call from Bill. He asked me for a little more detail about
believed she was innocent or not. I realized that he was
the individual’s behalf that I was calling on and stated
simply doing his job. And was damn good at it as well!
that he wanted to call me back right away based on the severity of the case and he mentioned that in all his
My first personal encounter with Bill was on or around July
years, he had parents call him on behalf of their children,
