William Ball Gilbert (July 4, 1847 – April 27, 1931) was an American attorney and jurist from Oregon.

[1] The Gilbert family had pro-Union sympathies, and moved to Ohio before the American Civil War.

[1] In 1873, Gilbert was admitted to the Oregon bar and began practicing law in Portland with H. H. Northrup at what is now Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP.

[1] Gilbert remained in private legal practice in Portland until 1892, working with John M. Gearin and Zera Snow.

Gilbert's nomination to the court was hampered when one of the associates in his firm, future judge Wallace McCamant, wrote a letter to a friend expounding that McCamant would gain financially from Gilbert's election to the court.

[2] After it was explained that the financial gain had to do with McCamant becoming partner in the firm if Gilbert left, and not something illicit, the nomination moved forward.

[2] These including cases concerning the scandal over gold mining in Alaska, a controversy over Leland Stanford's estate and Stanford University, a lawsuit over the Teapot Dome scandal, and the Ninth's opinion in what became the Olmstead v. United States wiretapping case.