William P. Lynch

William P. Lynch was sworn in as a United States Magistrate Judge on April 21, 2005. He received his undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois. Judge Lynch practiced law in Roswell with Atwood, Malone, Mann & Turner for 16 years. For the first few years he engaged in general civil practice and appellate work, and for approximately 13 years engaged primarily in trial practice.

In 1995 Judge Lynch was appointed as a District Judge in New Mexico’s Fifth Judicial District. As a general jurisdiction judge, Judge Lynch was responsible for a caseload of approximately 1300 cases that involved a broad range of criminal, civil and domestic relations issues. As a trial judge, he was frequently selected by the Supreme Court or the parties to preside over complex cases, such as a class action lawsuit alleging price fixing by 22 prescription drug manufacturers filed in Las Vegas and six consolidated wrongful death cases arising out of the El Paso pipeline explosion that occurred in Eddy County.

Judge Lynch served on the New Mexico Rules of Civil Procedure Committee for nine years, and was chair of the Committee for the last six years. He also served on numerous other professional boards and community organizations, and received the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Chaves County Bar Association.

In 2001 Judge Lynch received a Master of Judicial Studies degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. In addition to authoring a number of articles for legal publication, his master’s thesis on Court-annexed mandatory arbitration was published in the New Mexico Law Review ("Problems with Court-Annexed Mandatory Arbitration: Illustrations from the New Mexico Experience," 32 New Mexico Law Review 181 (2002)).