By the time you read this column, you may have learned that my law partner Bill Bransford died Sept. 27 after a long struggle with cancer. Bill served as the Ask the Lawyer columnist since February 2010 with great pride. I practiced law with Bill for 24 years. He hired me fresh out of law school. I worked directly for him for the first nine years, and since then as Bill’s law and business partner. Mostly, he was my mentor and dear friend. Everyone who knew him thought of him as a giant in the arena of federal personnel law,…