Practice Areas:

Bill Thompson is a native of Wichita. He attended the University of Kansas where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in business in 1951 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1958. While in law school he was an editor of the Kansas Law Review. In 1958, Mr. Thompson joined the firm and was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1959. He is the grandson of C.H. Brooks, who was one of the original founders of the law firm of Smyth & Brooks, which firm eventually evolved into Fleeson, Gooing, Coulson & Kitch, L.L.C.

Mr. Thompson’s practice includes drafting wills, revocable trusts and related documents, counseling the elderly, structuring transfers to individuals and charities through irrevocable trusts and other arrangements, preparing gift, estate and generation skipping tax returns, forming family limited partnerships and other entities for family successors and tax reduction, forming private foundations and other non-profit entities, advising fiduciaries on administration of estates and trusts, and resolving tax disputes.

Mr. Thompson is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, of which he served as chair for the State of Kansas from 1992 through 1996, and is recognized in the publication "Best Lawyers in America"^® in the areas of Trusts and Estates and Corporate Law.

Mr. Thompson has made presentations at Wichita and Kansas Bar Association seminars on trusts, estates, tax and business topics. He has made similar presentations to other professional groups including the Quad State Meetings of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Mr. Thompson has authored articles on various estate planning topics which have been published in the Kansas Bar Journal and in Estate Planning magazine.

Mr. Thompson is a past chair of the WBA Probate Practice Section; past chair of the Executive Committee of the KBA Taxation Section; and a former member of the Executive Committee of the KBA Section of Probate, Real Property and Trust Law. He is also a member of the ABA Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, the Wichita Estate Planning Council, the Wichita Estate Planning Forum and the Probate Law Advisory Committee of the Kansas Judicial Council.

Mr. Thompson is former Chair and board member of the Wichita Downtown Rotary Club; Wichita Rotary Charitable Fund, Inc.; American Red Cross - Midway-Kansas Chapter; Hospice, Inc.; American Cancer Society, Sedgwick County Division; and Kansas Foundation for the Handicapped. He is also serving or has served on the boards of Episcopal Social Services, Inc.; Rainbows United, Inc.; Rainbows United Charitable Foundation, Inc.; United Way of the Plains; Music Theater of Wichita; Blood Services, Inc. of American Red Cross; and Friends of Wichita Art Museum. In addition, Mr. Thompson has been on the Planned Giving Committees of the United Way of the Plains and of the Wichita State Endowment Association.