Philadelphia Judge and Pittsburgh Lawyer Confirmed to Federal Bench
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge John Milton Younge and Pittsburgh lawyer William S. Stickman IV were confirmed to federal judgeships in the Eastern and Western districts of Pennsylvania, respectively, by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
August 01, 2019 at 04:47 PM
3 minute read
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge John Milton Younge and Pittsburgh lawyer William S. Stickman IV were confirmed to federal judgeships in the Eastern and Western districts of Pennsylvania, respectively, by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
Younge and Stickman were confirmed with seven other judicial nominees from across the country Wednesday. Notably, this is Younge’s second time through the judicial selection process, as he was originally nominated to the Eastern District in 2015 by former President Barack Obama.
However, at that time, Obama’s judicial nominees faced resistance from Senate Republicans. The Senate Judiciary Committee skipped over Younge, and Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Robert J. Colville for the Western District.
Younge and Stickman did not respond to requests for comment on their confirmations.
Younge, sitting on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas since 1996 and twice reelected, has had a hand in many notable cases over the course of his judicial career.
In civil litigation against U-Haul stemming from a fatal 2014 food truck explosion in Philadelphia, Younge ruled that the manager at the U-Haul facility who filled the propane tank that eventually exploded needed to at least attend the deposition and be asked questions before asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a possible corresponding criminal case.
Weeks earlier, Younge ruled against moving a civil suit against Walmart over claims that it negligently sold ammunition to a drunken 20-year-old who later used it in a fatal shooting spree out of Philadelphia, to either Lehigh or Northampton counties.
Stickman works as an appellate lawyer at Del Sole Cavanaugh Stroyd in Pittsburgh. According to his firm biography, he has represented Fortune 500 companies and was selected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Civil Procedural Rules Committee. He served as a judicial law clerk to the late Chief Justice Ralph Cappy of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and worked as an associate at the Pittsburgh offices of Reed Smith.
Recently, Stickman worked on a case that has been slated for state Supreme Court review, one that could affect the way employers keep competition at bay.
Earlier this year, an en banc Pennsylvania Superior Court panel, after rehearing argument in a case of first impression, voted 7-2 to affirm a Beaver County Court of Common Pleas decision upholding a nonsolicitation provision in the contract between Pittsburgh Logistics Systems and Beemac Trucking, but refusing to enforce a no-hire provision. Last March, a split three-judge Superior Court panel ruled the same way.
Stickman and Younge’s confirmations come less than a month after fellow Pennsylvanian Nicholas Ranjan was confirmed to the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Ranjan was a Pittsburgh-based partner at K&L Gates, focusing his commercial litigation practice on energy, oil and gas, arbitration, class action defense, and appellate litigation matters. He was also the firm’s pro bono coordinator and chairman of the diversity committee for the firm’s Pittsburgh office.
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