William Austin Whiting (August 5, 1855 – January 18, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician of the Kingdom, Republic, and Territory of Hawaii. He served as Attorney General of Hawaii and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. During his college years, he was captain of the 1875 Harvard Crimson football team.
Whiting was born August 5, 1855, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. His ancestors included Massachusetts colonial governors Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet, and Reverend John Cotton. He became a sixth generation Harvard College graduate, and served as captain of the 1875 Harvard Crimson football team. After graduating Harvard, he became a lawyer and practiced in Boston and Charlestown.
Whiting resettled in the Hawaiian Islands in 1880 where his uncle James W. Austin was an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He continued his law practice in Honolulu. In 1891, the newly enthroned Queen Liliuokalani appointed him as Attorney General succeeding Arthur P. Peterson of the hold-over cabinet from the reign of King Kalākaua. As a cabinet minister, he sat as a member of the House of Nobles, the upper body of the legislature of the kingdom. Considered a tool of the queen by her opposition, Whiting lost popularity for his defense of the controversial Marshal Charles Burnett Wilson, a favorite of the queen and subordinate of the Attorney General. Whiting resigned on July 27, 1892, and was replaced by Paul Neumann.