William T. Hutton

William T. Hutton, a nationally recognized expert in nonprofit and tax law who helped pioneer modern land conservation in the United States, died on October 30, 2025. He was 88.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Bill Hutton played a central role in forging legal tools to protect and conserve America's most cherished natural places from coast to coast. He seeded the growth of national nonprofit and conservation organizations, local and regional land trusts, while educating generations of law students at New York University School of Law and University of California College of Law, San Francisco.

Born on July 5, 1937, in Detroit, Michigan, to William Rogers Hutton, an automotive industry engineer, and Erma Southwick Hutton, a teacher who began her career in a rural one room schoolhouse, he was educated in Detroit public schools. He enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately after high school and served in the Signal Corps in Panama before attending Dartmouth College, graduating in 1961. He went on to the University of Michigan Law School and New York University School of Law where he received his LLM in Taxation in 1965.

Bill began his legal career on Wall Street at Cravath, Swaine & Moore before joining the tax faculty of New York University School of Law in 1968. There he directed the Root-Tilden Public Interest Law Scholarship Program from 1968-1976, and following the Tax Reform Act of 1969, developed the first law school course on Tax Exempt Organizations in the country. In 1980 he moved with his young family to San Francisco to join the faculty of University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where he taught until retiring as Professor of Law Emeritus in 2017.

His career paced alongside the exponential growth in land conservation over the past half century. Alongside teaching, he consulted on precedent-setting conservation transactions on behalf of landowners and nonprofits throughout the U.S. Through his involvement with the Land Trust Alliance and extensive training of land trust professionals, IRS, U.S. Departments of Justice and Treasury, he helped foster the growth of the movement nationwide.

Bill built respected nonprofit and conservation law practices at private firms in San Francisco, including Howard Rice, and Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, and was a cofounder of Conservation Partners, LLP. He served as General Counsel to the Tides Foundation, The Energy Foundation, and the Trust for Public Land. He was a founding trustee of Conservation International, and a director of Ecotrust, CoEvolution Institute, Pacific Forest Trust, and the Schools of the Sacred Heart. Students, colleagues, and clients valued his steady guidance and generous pro bono counsel.

A proud son of the Motor City, he loved cars, classic jazz, the American Songbook, and the Detroit Tigers. He was an avid sports fan, often at the center of "March Madness" brackets. His creativity was a latent force, and graced us through his love of language, beautiful singing voice, serialized children's stories told over months and years, and infamous colorful characters invented for his legal problem sets.

He spent significant blocks of time chasing trout on the banks of the Delaware River, near the Catskills, and in Ennis, Montana, on the Madison River. He had a special and deep connection to Montana's wild beauty and former "reasonable and prudent" speed limit and took great joy in the promise of an open road.

He is survived by his daughter Terrel Hutton, son-in-law Tom Hicks, grandchildren Carson and Trevor Hicks, sister Arlene Matzkin (Don), nephews Zachary and Aaron Matzkin and their families, former wife Lynda Hutton, and many friends, students and colleagues. He was preceded in death by his son Billy Hutton.

Bill was a quiet giant who left a legacy that has inspired countless individuals and organizations. His presence, friendship and counsel are deeply missed.