William Conwell
Partner

(412) 560-3270 (phone)
(412) 471-1106 (fax)

Pittsburgh, PA Office

WILLIAM CONWELL concentrates his practice exclusively in the representation of employers, their third party administrators and insurance carriers before Workers’ Compensation Judges throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Throughout his 20 plus years of practice, he has handled all varieties of disability claims in the workers’ compensation system in Pennsylvania, including fatalities, mental stress, hearing loss and catastrophic injuries to individuals sustaining cognitive brain dysfunction. While defending employers for the more typical orthopedic claims, Mr. Conwell has represented industries as diverse as Bottlers, Waste Haulers, Construction Companies, Trucking and Transportation Providers, Elevator Manufactures and Facilities for the Physically/Mentally Challenged. He also served as designated counsel for the Pittsburgh Pirates on the construction of their home field, PNC Park.

Beginning in 1995, Mr. Conwell served a three-year term as the Course Planner Chair for the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Workers’ Compensation Section. He was responsible for the Continuing Legal Education Programs offered by the Section, updating its members on the evolution of workers’ compensation law in the wake of the 1996 amendments to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, commonly referred to as Act 57. Those changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act spurred the growth of the administrative function of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. As a result, the use of Bureau forms blossomed from less than a dozen to more than seventy. Mr. Conwell continues to train employers and insurance carriers on the proper use of these forms so as to reduce or eliminate their workers’ compensation exposure.

Mr. Conwell served as the Workers’ Compensation Section Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association again in 2003. Following this term, he was honored by the Section in recognition of his service to the Bar and to the Public. Since 2001, Mr.Conwell has been named as one of the Nation’s preeminent practitioners in the area of workers’ compensation law by the publishers of the The Best Lawyers in America. Since 2005, Mr. Conwell has been recognized by the publishers of Philadelphia Magazine in their Pennsylvania edition of “Super Lawyers” as among the top five percent of practitioners in his practice specialty. Since the expiration of his term of chairman in 2003, Mr. Conwell has continued to lecture on workers’ compensation issues pertaining to proper claims handling, the evolution of the Workers’ Compensation Bureau forms, the relationship between HIPAA and the Workers’ Compensation Act and the growth of Medicare Set-Aside Programs.

Born in the Lehigh Valley, Mr. Conwell spent 6 years in Central Pennsylvania (4 at Dickinson College and 2 with United Telephone) before migrating west to law school at the University of Pittsburgh. For the past 17 years, he and his wife, Pauline, and their 3 children have resided in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. With family roots reaching back to the Wyoming Valley and the Northern tier of Pennsylvania, his practice of workers’ compensation law has taken him to nearly every County to represent his clients before the Workers’ Compensation Judges hearing cases in the Commonwealth.

Areas of Practice

Workers’ Compensation Law
Long Shore and Harbor Workers’ Act Law

Bar Admissions

Pennsylvania

Education

1986
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
J.D.

1981
Dickinson College
Carlisle, PA
B.A. in History and Medieval Studies

Affiliations

Pennsylvania Bar Association
Allegheny County Bar Association
American Bar Association
Defense Research Institute
Pennsylvania Defense Institute

Publications

Conwell, William M. (2001) “Workers’ Compensation” § 29 in Merrick T. Rossein, J.D. (Ed.) Employment Law Deskbook for Human Resources Professionals, vol. 2, West Group.

Representative Clients

Pepsi Bottling Group
Frito Lay
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Penn Line Corporation
Schindler Elevator
Vision Quest
First Comp
Hartford
Alex Paris Contracting Company, Inc.
Vector Security
CHUBB Services
Vogel Disposal

Representative Matters

Coyne Textile v. WCAB (Voorhis), 840 A.2d 372 (Pa. Commw. 2003)

Associated Plumbing & Heating v. WCAB (Hartzog), 560 A.2d 865 (Pa.Commw.1998)