William Edward Werner (April 19, 1855 – March 1, 1916) was an American lawyer and judge from New York.

[1][2] His parents died early, so he left school and worked as an errand boy, foundry worker and then farmhand.

He returned to Buffalo and worked at a factory and attended Bryant and Stratton's Business College at night to study bookkeeping and commercial law.

[2] In 1877, he moved to Rochester, and studied law in the offices of William H. Bowman at the Power Building, and later Dennis C. Feely.

[1][2] He was elected as a justice of the New York Supreme Court (7th District), following the death of Judge Macomber, serving from January 1, 1895, to 1904.

[1][citation needed] On January 1, 1900, he was appointed by Governor Theodore Roosevelt as an associate judge to the New York Court of Appeals.