Attorney Profiles

Since 1994, William L. Banton Jr. has primarily focused his practice in the area of medical malpractice litigation, having handled 150 to 200 medical malpractice cases. He has also practiced in the areas of mental health (foster care abuse, sexual abuse), general liability, and civil rights defense. He has defended major asbestos manufacturers in toxic tort matters, as well as represented the interests of numerous municipalities in the state of Pennsylvania in various civil rights cases litigated in federal court.

Ninety-nine percent of the cases William has tried were to a jury. He obtained defense verdicts in a large number of these cases, and some trials ended in a verdict or settlement significantly below the settlement demands.

For example, William successfully defended a pediatrician in a case where the settlement demand was $7 million. He obtained the dismissal of his physician client following oral argument, just prior to trial. William also obtained favorable settlements for clients in several cases involving demands in excess of $3 million. As well, he obtained a directed verdict in a trial involving the death of a juvenile following a Methadone overdose.

William is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following graduation, William attended the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he obtained his Juris Doctorate degree in 1983. William returned to the Philadelphia area and accepted a clerkship with the Honorable Theodore A. McKee formerly of the Court of Common Pleas. Justice McKee currently sits on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Upon completion of a challenging one-year clerkship, William served as an Assistant City Solicitor and eventually obtained the status as Assistant Chief City Solicitor for the Philadelphia Law Department, where he tried numerous cases involving alleged civil rights violations by the Philadelphia Police Department and corrections officers for the Philadelphia prisons.

In June 1985, William entered the private practice of law, where he began to refine his skills at two area law firms in a wide variety of litigation matters before beginning his career at Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin in November 1990.

William has lectured before various insurance organizations, as well as participated in mock trial seminars to educate physicians about the litigation process.

He is a member of Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin's Human Relations Committee and serves as Vice-Chair of the firm's Hiring Committee.

William has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 in the area of Personal Injury Defense-Medical Malpractice.

He is currently the President of the Latham Park Home Owners Association and on the Board of Directors of Intercommunity Action, Inc.