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Attorneys
University of Pennsylvania Law School
One Logan Square
18th & Cherry Streets, 27th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103-6933
Fax: 215.568.0300
Biography
William Hangley, a trial lawyer, is a founder and the Chairman of Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller. His trial practice includes First Amendment, antitrust, intellectual property, estates, franchise, environmental, construction, employment, securities, attorney malpractice, and general business cases. Professional responsibility cases account for approximately 20 percent of Bill’s cases.
A 1966 graduate cum laude of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Bill was Comment Editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He holds a BS in music from SUNY College at Fredonia and taught elementary school vocal music in another life.
By appointment of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Bill is one of the two lawyers in private practice who serve on the United States Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. He was appointed to the Lawyers’ Advisory Committee of the Third Circuit Judicial Council by Chief Judge Anthony Scirica.
Bill is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and served a two-year term as Chair of the College’s Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence. For the past two years, he has served on the College’s Task Force on Discovery. Over the years, he has served on various College committees and task forces including the Pennsylvania State Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Importance of an Independent Judiciary. In 2002, on behalf of the College, Bill wrote and published the College’s attack on the appellate trend toward “unpublished,” “non-precedential,” or “uncitable” opinions (see "Opinions Hidden," below), and later testified on behalf of the College before the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules in support of then-proposed Fed. R. App. P. 32.1. The Standing Committee of the Judicial Conference cited and quoted "Opinions Hidden" in submitting the proposed new rule to the United States Supreme Court for consideration.
Bill is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the American Law Institute and the Lawyers Committee of the National Center for State Courts. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania appointed him to two terms as a member of the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts Board.
He is a Master of the Bench of the University of Pennsylvania Law School American Inn of Court. By appointment of the Board of Judges of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Bill served as a Judge Pro Tem of that court during a crash program to reduce docket backlog in that court. He presided over jury and nonjury trials. Bill is a member of the Advisory Committee of Community Legal Services, has been a member of the Board of Advisors of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and has served in the Pennsylvania Bar Association House of Delegates.
Bill served a three-year term as a member of the Council (the governing body) of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation. During his long involvement in Section leadership he has chaired several committees and task forces (Civil Procedure, Merit Selection, Discovery, Training the New Lawyer, and others).
Education
University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1966, LLB, cum laude, Order of the Coif
State University of New York College, Fredonia, New York, 1963, BS
Honors and Awards
- As a result of a statewide survey of lawyers and judges conducted by Law and Politics Media, and subsequent inquiries by blue-ribbon panels of lawyers and judges, Bill was named one of the 10 outstanding lawyers in Pennsylvania.
- Beginning with its first edition, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business has named Bill as one of five or six Band One Commercial Trial Lawyers in Pennsylvania.
- He has been consistently recognized by The Best Lawyers in America as one of a handful of “Bet Your Company” Pennsylvania trial lawyers.
- Bill is consistently named a Local Litigation Star by Benchmark: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys
- Bill has been identified every year in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top 10 lawyers in Pennsylvania, and he is often in the top three.
- He is also named annually in Who’s Who Legal and the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, as one of Pennsylvania’s top five business trial lawyers.
- Who’s Who in America, 1995 – Present
- Named as one of Delaware Valley’s preeminent commercial litigators, Philadelphia Magazine, 1994 – Present
- American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow, 1987 – Present
- American Bar Foundation, Fellow
- Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, Law, University of Pennsylvania Fellow, 1970
- University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Comment Editor
Publications
- “Opinions Hidden, Citations Forbidden: Report and Recommendations of the American College of Trial Lawyers on the Publication and Citation of Nonbinding Federal Circuit Court Opinions," 208 F.R.D. 645 (2002)
- “Teaching Through Experts: Changing the Obscure to the Obvious,” Litigation, Spring, 2001
- “Direct and the Director: Writing, Staging and Telling The Story,” Litigation, Fall, 1998
- “The Fourth Estate and the Second Front: Winning and Losing in the Press,” Litigation, Spring, 1997
- “The Strike Zone, the Trial Judge and Other Moving Targets,” California Litigation (California Bar Association Section of Litigation), Spring, 1995
Representative Cases
- McNeil v. Jordan, 814 A.2d 234 (Pa. Super. 2002): The successful defense of heirs against claims of interference with testamentary expectancy
- Barrett v. West Chester University, 2003 WL 22803477 (E.D. Pa. Nov. 12, 2003): Successfully brought a Title IX case seeking to require a college to reinstate its women’s gymnastics team
- Lewis v. Pennsylvania Bar Association, 701 A.2d 551 (Pa. 1997): The successful defense against attempts to frustrate Pennsylvania’s independent process for evaluating judicial candidates
- Gentzler v. Atlee, 660 A.2d 1378 (Pa. Super. 1995): Successful suit against lawyer for prosecuting malpractice claims against physician without probable cause
- Arachnid Inc. v. Merit Industries, Inc., 939 F.2d 1574 (Fed. Cir. 1991): Successful defense of patent infringement claims
- Thompson v. Glenmede Trust Co., 1996 WL 635682 (E.D. Pa. 1996): Successful representation of law firm accused of violating fiduciary duties to bank-client’s customers in a $1 billion buyback of stock
- Hamburger Color Co. v. Landers-Segal Color Co., Inc.; 1996 WL 379562 (E.D. Pa. 1996): Successful prosecution of patent infringement and common law claims involving technology for coloring concrete. Permanent injunction and counsel fees awarded
- GMIS v. HPR (E.D. Pa. (1995): Successful prosecution (leading to settlement at trial) of patent infringement counterclaims and defense of validity of patent
- United States v. Nippon Sanso, KK, 1991 WL 57955 (E.D. Pa. 1991): Successful defense against government antitrust claims involving technology for manufacture of computer chips
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Board, 2005 – Present
- American Law Institute, 1998 – Present
- Master of the Bench, University of Pennsylvania Law School American Inn of Court, 1993 – Present
- Judge Pro Tem, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, 1990 – Present
- American College of Trial Lawyers
- Chair, Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence, 2001 – Present
- Pennsylvania State Committee, 2001 – 2002
- American Bar Association Section of Litigation
- Research Fund Task Force, 2009 – Present
- Co-Chair, Federal Practice Task Force, 2009 – Present
- Task Force on the Independence of the Judiciary, 1998 – Present
- Task Force on Discovery, 1997 – 2000
- Co-Chair, Merit Selection of Judges Task Force, 1995 – 1997
- Co-Chair, Federal Procedure Committee, 1990 – 1995
Teaching / Lecturing
- Bill lectures or serves on panels dealing with a range of topics including intellectual property litigation, professional ethics and attorney responsibility, and general trial techniques.
Bar Admissions
- Pennsylvania
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- United States District Court for the District of Maryland
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania