Home > Attorneys > William T. Hangley

Biography

Mr. Hangley, a trial lawyer, is Chairman of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin.  His trial practice includes First Amendment, antitrust, intellectual property, estates, environmental, construction, employment, securities, attorney malpractice and general business cases.  Professional responsibility cases account for approximately 20% of Mr. Hangley's cases. 

He is a 1966 graduate cum laude of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was Comment Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.  He holds a B.S. in music from S.U.N.Y. College at Fredonia.

Mr. Hangley 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.  He is a member of a recently constituted Task Force of the College that is considering the structure of the American discovery system and its effect on the access to the courts, and also serves on the College's Communications and Outreach Committees.  He has served several terms as a member of its Pennsylvania State Committee and has served on its Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of the Civil Jury Trial and its Ad Hoc Committee on the Importance of an Independent Judiciary.  On behalf of the College, Mr. Hangley wrote and published the College's position on appellate courts' practice of issuing "unpublished," "non-precedential," or "uncitable" opinions (see Opinions Hidden, below).  He testified before the United States Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules regarding 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.  The new rule became effective on December 1, 2006. 

By appointment of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Mr. Hangley is one of the two lawyers in private practice who serve on the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States. 

Mr. Hangley is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Member of the American Law Institute.  By appointment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he is a member of the Pennsylvania IOLTA Board.

Mr. Hangley is a member of the Council, or governing body, of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, chairs the Council's Committee on Publications and is a member of the Reserves Committee of the Council.  During his time in the Section, he has served five successive terms as Co-Chair of the Federal Procedure Committee, was Co-Chair of the Merit Selection of Judges Task Force and served on the Section's Task Forces on the Judiciary, on Discovery, and on Training the New Lawyer.  He also served as a member of an ad hoc national committee of law professors and lawyers that reviewed and evaluated the then pending top-to-bottom stylistic amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  Those amendments have now been adopted. 

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, Mr. Hangley has served as a Judge Pro Tem of that court, presiding over jury and non-jury trials in a crash program to reduce docket backlog. 

He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and a member of the Fundraising Committee of Community Legal Services.  He is a past member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association House of Delegates. 

Education

University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1966
LL.B.
     Honors: cum laude, Order of the Coif
     Law Review: Comment Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review

State University of New York College, Fredonia, New York, 1963
B.S., Music

Honors and Awards

Law Review: Comment Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 1964 - 1966

University of Pennsylvania Fellow, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, Law, 1970

Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, 1987 - Present

Fellow, American Bar Foundation

Named as One of Delaware Valley's preeminent commercial litigators, Philadelphia Magazine, 1994 - Present

Who's Who in America, Biographee, 1995 - Present

Since its inception, Mr. Hangley has been identified in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers (2003-04), as one of the top five Commercial Trial Lawyers in Pennsylvania. 

For more than ten years, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America.  He is one of a handful of Pennsylvania attorneys recommended for “Bet Your Company” litigation, and is also identified in the business litigation and arbitration categories.  

Mr. Hangley has been identified every year in the “Pennsylvania Super Lawyers” evaluations as one of the 10 outstanding lawyers in Pennsylvania.  He is also listed annually in Who’s Who Legal, the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, as one of Pennsylvania’s top five business trial lawyers. 

As a result of a recent statewide poll of lawyers and judges conducted by Law and Politics Media, and subsequent inquiries by “blue ribbon” panels of lawyers and judges, Mr. Hangley is being named one of the 10 outstanding lawyers in Pennsylvania.

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 (Cal. Bar Ass'n. 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. Sept. 4, 2003): A Title IX case successfully seeking to require a college to reinstate its women’s gymnastics team.

Lewis v. Pennsylvania Bar Association, 549 Pa. 471, 701 A.2d 551 (Pa. 1997): The successful defense against attempts to frustrate of Pennsylvania’s independent process for evaluating judicial candidates.

Gentzler v. Atlee, 443 Pa. Super. 128, 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.; Hamburger Color Co. and Pan Chemical Co.: 1996 WL 370562 (E.D. Pa. 1996). Successful prosecution of patent infringement and common law claims involving technology for coloring concrete. Permanent injunction and counsel fees awarded.

United States v. Nippon Sanso, KK, et al., 1991 WL 57955 (E.D. Pa. 1991): Successful defense against government antitrust claims involving technology for manufacture of computer chips.

GMIS v. HPR (E.D. Pa. (unreported, 1995): Successful prosecution (leading to settlement at trial) of patent infringement counterclaims and defense of validity of patent.

Larami Corp. v. Lanard, Inc.

Professional Associations and Memberships

Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Board, 2005 - Present

American Law Institute, 1998 - Present
Member

University of Pennsylvania Inn of Court, 1993 - Present
Master of the Bench

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, 1990 - Present
Judge Pro Tem

American College of Trial Lawyers, 2001 - Present
Chair, Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence

American College of Trial Lawyers, 2001 - 2002
Member, Pennsylvania State Committee

ABA Section of Litigation, 1998 - Present
Member, Task Force on the Judiciary

ABA Section of Litigation, 1997 - 2000
Member, Task Force on Discovery

ABA Section of Litigation, 1995 - 1997
Co-Chair, Merit Selection of Judges Task Force

ABA Section of Litigation, 1990 - 1995
Co-Chair, Federal Procedure Committee

Teaching / Lecturing

Mr. Hangley lectures or serves on panels dealing with a range of topics including intellectual property litigation, professional ethics and attorney responsibility, and general trial techniques.  During 2006, his more recent activities included being the guest speaker at the annual dinner of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, a cross-examination demonstration at the American Bar Association’s National Legal Malpractice Conference in New York, and a lecture on recent developments in the law at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania College of Trial Judges.

Bar Admissions

Pennsylvania
United States Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit
United States Court of Appeals Federal Circuit
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania