William J. Blair served as the President of Blair Sterling Johnson & Martinez until his passing in April 2019.  He will be greatly missed by those of us who had the honor to work with him.  To us he was a great colleague and a great mentor, but most of all a dear friend.  

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Mr. Blair joined the firm, then known as Klemm Dear & Lawrence, as an associate in June 1977.  He became a principal of the firm in 1982 and President in 2001.  

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Long one of the most highly respected attorneys in Guam, in 1981 Mr. Blair was elected President of the Guam Bar Association, after previously serving as Chairman of the Guam Bar’s Ethics Committee.  As Bar president, Mr. Blair worked to strengthen the Bar’s lawyer disciplinary system.  

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He also served on the Guam Bar’s Board of Governors. Mr. Blair served on a committee made up of justices, judges and attorneys to formulate the Guam Rules for Judicial Discipline.  He chaired the Guam Supreme Court’s Committee on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice.  From 2004 to 2014, he served as the lawyer advisory member to the Judicial Council of Guam.

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Mr. Blair’s primary areas of practice involved real property, commercial, corporate and general civil law matters.  His clients included some of the most successful businesses in Guam.  For more than 20 years, Mr. Blair represented the independent regulatory advisers to the Public Utilities Commission of Guam, which has regulatory oversight over various public and private utilities in Guam.  

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Mr. Blair also served on the elected Board of Governors of the Guam Chamber of Commerce, where he chaired an ad hoc committee dealing with legal infrastructure issues.  As chairman of the ad hoc committee, Mr. Blair worked with legislators and other attorneys in efforts to reform and modernize Guam’s business license and corporation statutes.  Many of the reforms promoted and advocated by Mr. Blair have become law.  

Guam 

• Duenas v. Kallingal, 2013 Guam 28

• Van Meter v. Calpac, 2006 WL 3755342 (D. Guam 2006)

• Transamerica Leasing, Inc. v. Compania Anonima Venezolana de Navegacion, 93 F.3d 675 (9th Cir. 1996)

• Commonwealth Ports Auth. v. Hakubotan Saipan Ent., Inc., 2 N.M.I. 212 (1991)

• Manley v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 883 F.2d 747 (9th Cir. 1989)

• Houck v. Yasuda Fire and Marine Inc. Co., 1988 WL 242623 (D. Guam App. Div. 1988)

• Hennegan v. Pacifico Creative Serv., Inc., 787 F.2d 1299 (9th Cir. 1986)

• Sakamoto v. Duty Free Shoppers, Ltd., 764 F.2d 1285 (9th Cir. 1985), cert denied, 475 U.S. 1081 (1986)

• Island Aviation, Inc. v. Guam Airport Auth., 562 F.Supp. 951 (D. Guam 1982)

• Jones & Guerrero Co., Inc. v. Sealift Pac., 650 F.2d 1072 (9th Cir. 1981)

Northern Mariana Islands

• Commonwealth Ports Auth. v. Hakubotan Saipan Ent., 2 N.M.I. 212 (1991)

Mr. Blair has was active in sports and community activities in Guam. 

He coached and managed a Little League baseball team until asked by parents and other coaches to serve as president of the league.  For more than 20 years he played for, coached and managed a softball team made up of lawyers, accountants, bankers, business executives and other prominent Guam business and civic leaders, many of whom still call him “Coach.”