Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller memorializes and grieves founding shareholder and Chair Emeritus, Bill Hangley, who died on June 23, 2026. He was 85 years old.
Bill was a giant at everything he did.
Bill led the formation of the firm in 1994, along with Mark Aronchick, David Pudlin, John Summers and the late Dan Segal. He was an energetic Chair of the firm for 20 years, driving our colleagues to excellence. He asked others to do what he did, day in and day out; work hard to advance our clients, conduct yourself with the highest integrity and ethical standards, and have fun. While the legal profession has strayed some from its roots as a profession and into a business, Bill continually reminded us of what it meant to be a lawyer and the many obligations that came with that.
Bill’s prodigious talents – including intelligence, charisma, incisiveness and dedication – also earned him a national reputation as one of America’s most highly decorated trial lawyers. He tried every kind of case, whether First Amendment, intellectual property, antitrust, real estate, attorney malpractice, capital punishment or general contract and business tort cases. No one who savored writing more than Bill; he was the firm’s bard and pushed everyone he worked with to stop sounding like a plodding lawyers.
Bill played central roles in countless legal organizations. He was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a member of the United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules and was Liaison of the ABA Section of Litigation to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. Bill served with the American College of Trial Lawyers as Regent for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. He also served as Chair of the Pennsylvania IOLTA Board (by appointment of Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald Castille), and as Chair of the Third Circuit Lawyers Advisory Committee (by appointment of Third Circuit Chief Judge Anthony Scirica).
In addition, he served as Co-Chair of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Federal Practice Task Force, and as a member of the Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice, a joint project of the American College and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, working to address the increasing inefficiency and expense of the civil justice system and the disappearance of the civil jury trial.
Within the firm, Bill trained and mentored multiple generations of litigators. If you were on a case with Bill, you were his partner – no matter what your station – in an intellectual give and take that rivaled the best law school seminar. Younger lawyers watched an extraordinary advocate prepare to actually try a case, not litigate it to a settlement. Bill not only led by example, but he also observed (and critiqued) younger lawyers’ performances, following up with candid critique.
And he did all of this with joy, zest and commitment. Bill was a stylish and lively presence at the firm. He was funny and appreciated others’ humor, not just his own. He was a dapper dresser. He was remarkably decent, with a genuine interest in everyone around him.
Bill, the youngest of ten children, was born and raised in Long Beach, New York. He majored in music education at SUNY Fredonia. He taught music in a Long Island elementary school for a year before winning a full scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. There he excelled, earning his LLB, cum laude, Order of the Coif, and serving on the Law Review.
Bill enjoyed a wonderful family life and was active in community and civic affairs in Philadelphia and beyond. He is survived by his wife of sixty years, Mary, by his two grandchildren, Holly and Jay, and by his three loving children: Katie, Bill Jr. and Michele, a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge who practiced at the firm for two decades.
Though we will miss him, Bill and his values will stay with us.
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