PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

For the first time since its inception nearly two decades ago, the

Philadelphia law firm of Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller announced this week a major change in leadership, with attorneys Mark A. Aronchick and Ronald P. Schiller being named chair and vice-chair respectively effective early next year.

The law firm, which is celebrating its 19^th anniversary this month, announced in an Oct. 8 news release that the change was being undertaken to help achieve its “long-term goal of thriving well beyond the generation of its founders.”

“This change is the first significant leadership change in the firm’s nineteen-year history, and it is the first step in the firm’s succession planning process under which key leadership roles in the firm will transition from the firm’s founders and others who have been with the firm for many years to the talented attorneys who later joined the firm at the beginning of their careers or came to the firm as laterals,” the news release states.

William T. Hangley, one of the law firm’s co-founders and its chairman since the firm’s beginning, complimented Aronchick as having been a successful attorney throughout his career, and said the former Bar Association chancellor, city solicitor, “great lawyer, partner and friend” would help lead the law firm in a positive direction.

“Letting go of the reins of leadership is a little bit scary, particularly in these challenging times for law firms, but Mark Aronchick has been great in everything he has tried,” Hangley said in a statement. “If anybody can preserve the special culture of this place and rise to the challenges of 21^st Century practice, Mark can do it.”

Aronchick, a co-founding shareholder of the law firm, has ample trial and appellate experience both locally and on the national scene.

“I hope to build on the great leadership that Bill Hangley provided over the past nineteen years,” Aronchick said in a statement. “The firm is poised and ready for the future and will continue to be a source of outstanding legal counsel to our clients and a magnet for the best legal talent.

“With this change,” he continued, “we are preserving our existing culture of excellence while simultaneously propelling the firm forward with a new generation of leadership.”

Schiller, who was named as the new vice chair, currently serves as the chair of the firm’s insurance litigation practice group.

He joined Hangley Aronchick in 2009 and became a name shareholder in 2011 in recognition of what the firm says is the “significant value he brought to the firm and his importance to its future.”

Schiller has represented large insurers in sophisticated coverage, bad faith and reinsurance disputes.

“My group was warmly welcomed by the firm and it has been exciting for us to work with the remarkable group of exceptional and bright young people we found here when we arrived and with the young lawyers and laterals who subsequently joined us to build an even stronger firm,” Schiller said in a statement. “We remain committed to growing via excellence, both by training our own attorneys and attracting laterals who share our vision.”

The firm was founded in 1994 with 16 lawyers and 25 total employees and has since grown to include 47 attorneys and 100 total employees in four offices.

Hangley Aronchick has offices in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Norristown, Pa., as well as in Cherry Hill, N.J.