William R. Maurer is the Executive Director of the Institute for Justice Washington Chapter (IJ-WA), which he joined in November 2002. IJ-WA engages in constitutional litigation in the areas of economic liberty, private property rights, educational choice, freedom of speech, and other vital liberties secured by the Washington State Constitution.

Maurer has successfully led challenges to a number of governmental abuses.   Before the Washington Supreme Court, he argued against efforts by the government to classify on-air radio commentary as a reportable contribution under state law, a case in which the court sided with IJ-WA 9-0.  He was also lead attorney on IJ-WA's successful challenge before the Ninth Circuit to a City of Redmond ordinance that banned the use of portable signs for commercial businesses while allowing them for politicians and real estate companies.  He regularly testifies on eminent domain and free speech issues before the Washington Legislature.  In December 2006, the Washington Policy Center published his Policy Brief, A False Sense of Security:  The Potential For Eminent Domain Abuse in Washington State. IJ-WA's cases have been covered in Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, City Journal, and in all major Washington papers.

In 2007, Maurer was named a "Washington Superlawyer" by Washington Law & Politics Magazine. Also in 2007, he was appointed to Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna's Eminent Domain Task Force. The A.G.'s task force will review Washington's eminent domain laws, identify abuse of eminent domain powers, and develop legislative reforms for the A.G. sponsor in the 2008 session of the Washington Legislature.

Prior to joining IJ-WA, Maurer was an attorney in the Bellevue, Washington office of Perkins Coie LLP, where he practiced regulatory law and administrative and appellate litigation from 1997 through 2002. He is a former law clerk to Justice Richard B. Sanders of the Washington State Supreme Court and Justice Victoria Lederberg of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He is currently the Co-Chairman of the Education Subcommittee of the Federalist Society's Civil Rights Practice Group, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Administrative Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association, and is the former Vice Chairman of the Federalist Society's Administrative Law Practice Group. He is a chapter author for a practice manual on the Washington State Public Records Act and is the author of a chapter on the interaction of administrative procedure and civil rights law in the Washington Administrative Law Deskbook. In 2000, he received the National Law Journal’s Pro Bono award as part of the Innocence Project Northwest.

Maurer received his law degree in 1994 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he was an articles editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree in Political Studies from Bard College in 1989.