Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Former federal judge hired by law firm
Lawrence F. Stengel of West Chester has joined the law firm of Saxton & Stump as a shareholder.
WEST CHESTER » Lawrence F. Stengel of West Chester, former chief judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (EDPA), who recently announced his retirement effective Aug. 31, has joined the law firm of Saxton & Stump as a shareholder. He will lead Saxton & Stump’s internal investigations practice and will serve clients in commercial, employment, intellectual property litigation, and appeals. He will also provide alternative dispute resolution services through Optimal Dispute Resolutions, a subsidiary of Saxton & Stump.
Stengel has proudly served the community for nearly three decades, serving for 14 years as a U.S. District Judge for the EDPA and 14 years on the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Stengel was nominated by former President George W. Bush in 2003 to the federal bench and was sworn in in 2004. On Aug. 1, 2017, he was named chief judge of the EDPA, the third largest federal court in the nation.
“We are honored to welcome Judge Stengel to Saxton & Stump,” said James W. Saxton, the firm’s CEO. “Serving as a judge at the federal and state levels for nearly 30 years is an admirable accomplishment. This is great not only for our firm and our clients, but for the community at large as well. His distinguished service certainly enhances our arbitration and mediation practice, as well as our employment, commercial and appellate practice areas.”
“I am very happy to be joining this excellent law firm,” said Stengel. “Jim Saxton and Chris Stump are outstanding lawyers, whom I have known for many years. As I approached the time when I was eligible to retire from the Federal Judiciary, I began to think about how I could more fully engage in the Lancaster and Central Pennsylvania community while still doing work that was challenging and interesting. I have always found joy and satisfaction in my work and I want very much to continue to have an impact in our profession and in this community. This firm provides that opportunity and I look forward to working with the great team of attorneys Saxton & Stump has assembled. It is a growing full-service law firm with a reputation for excellence.”
From 1990 until 2004, Stengel served as a judge on the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas where he presided over hundreds of jury and nonjury trials, wrote more than 1,000 opinions and conducted settlement conferences in numerous cases. He handled 20 homicide cases, including two capital cases that were tried to verdict. His state court work included many complex negligence, product liability, professional malpractice, land use, and commercial cases involving trials, hearings, motions, and settlements.
At the federal level, Stengel has written hundreds of opinions and has presided over numerous civil and criminal trials, including two multi-district lit-
igation cases. In 2009, he was appointed to the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Resources, the committee responsible for human resources policy for the entire federal judiciary. He was subsequently named chairman of the Judicial Resources Committee by Chief Justice Roberts in 2015.
Early in his career, from 1980 to 1984, he was in private practice in Pittsburgh with Dickie, McCarney, and Chilcote, P.C. He then began his own practice in Lancaster in the law office of his father, Lawrence E. Stengel from 1985 until 1990.
Stengel received a bachelor of arts from Saint Joseph’s University in 1974 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1980. While in law school, he served on the Law Review and published a Comment. He was a teacher at Lancaster Catholic High School from 1974 until 1977; an adjunct professor at Millersville University from 2000 to 2004; an adjunct professor at Franklin and Marshall College for 21 years, from 1997 to 2018; and an adjunct professor at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University from 2013 to 2018.
Stengel is the recipient of a number of distinguished awards including the President’s Award (Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges), Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award (Boy Scouts of America), Alumni Citation for Outstanding Professional Achievement (Lancaster Catholic High School) and has served as a commencement speaker on five occasions.
Based in Pennsylvania, Saxton & Stump is a legal and consulting firm that represents health care professionals and other businesses. The firm represents their clients in a wide range of legal and consulting services, including health care litigation and risk mitigation, labor and employment, corporate insurance coverage and bad faith matters, construction litigation, commercial litigation, estate planning, intellectual property, internal investigations and business law. In addition to a team of experienced lawyers and paralegals, the firm employs physicians, nurses, psychologists, physician reimbursement specialists, health policy thought leaders, and business consultants.