William B. Pentecost, Jr. is a partner and Chair of the General Liability Practice Group in the firm's Pittsburgh office. He is also Co-Chair of the firm-wide Transportation Law Practice Group.  For more than 20 years, he has concentrated his practice in civil litigation, focusing on transportation law (with an emphasis on catastrophic trucking cases), construction defect claims, and products liability cases (with a focus on automotive, fire, and toxic exposure claims).

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Pentecost served as regional counsel for a Fortune 500 Corporation's defense of toxic exposure cases in ten western states.  In that capacity, he managed litigation strategy, local counsel, discovery and experts for hundreds of cases.

Mr. Pentecost has been a member of the U.S. Army Reserve since he enlisted in 1987.  He recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the JAG Corps.  Since 2013, Mr. Pentecost has served as a Commissioner on the Governor of Pennsylvania's Military Community Enhancement Commission.

Mr. Pentecost has received the highest rating of AV® Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.  He is a regular speaker and panelist for a variety of legal and industry professional organizations, and is an active member of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), the Defense Research Institute (DRI), the Pennsylvania Defense Institute (PDI), the Transportation Lawyers Association (TLA) and the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association (PMTA).  From 2017 to 2019, he served on TLA's Executive Committee.  He also served as co-chair of TLA's Casualty Litigation Committee and currently serves as chair of its Motor Carrier Committee.  He is also a member of the American, Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar Associations.

Mr. Pentecost is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as the U.S. District Courts for the Western, Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania, the District of New Jersey, and the Northern District of Ohio.  He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. 

Mr. Pentecost has dedicated much of his life to military and public service.  He is a member of the Reserve Officers Association of the United States (ROA), the Military Officers Association of the United States (MOAA), the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW), the Army Navy Club on Farragut Square and the Marines' Memorial Club of San Francisco.

Mr. Pentecost's public service experience includes serving as ROA's National Judge Advocate from 2008 to 2017, where he served as pro bono general counsel to a 501(c) (19) organization that is congressionally chartered to promote the development and execution of a military policy for the United States that will provide adequate national security.  From 2017 to 2019, he served as a voting member of ROA's Executive Committee.  

Mr. Pentecost has also served as pro bono counsel to the Executive Committee for Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum of Pittsburgh from 2012 to the present, and he has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2010.

Mr. Pentecost is originally from Massachusetts, and he attended Providence College in nearby Rhode Island on a U.S. Army scholarship.  In 1992, he graduated with a major in accounting and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve.  After moving to Pittsburgh, Mr. Pentecost graduated summa cum laude from Duquesne University School of Law in 1996.  He was first in his class and a member of the Duquesne Law Review.

Recognitions & Seals