William Sylianteng
Member
e-mail: sylianteng@bbs-law.com
direct: (267) 654-1107
office: Blue Bell, PA

William Sylianteng is a member of the firm and chair of the firm’s large loss subrogation practice. Will began his career at Bennett, Bricklin & Saltzburg, LLC and then worked for a year in the national property subrogation/recovery department of a large Philadelphia law firm. He returned to our firm in 2007. Will is licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

Originally from southern California, Will attended California State University, Northridge, and received his B.A. in Political Science. After graduation, Will attended Temple University Law School where he received his J.D. At Temple, Will received honors in Oral Advocacy, Evidence and Taxation. He also was the President of Temple’s Asian Pacific Law Student Association and was awarded the Bertram K. Wolfe Award for outstanding achievement in the second year of his legal studies.

In 2007, Will was named a “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer and PA Law Weekly, an honor given annually to 35 attorneys under the age of 40 who are recognized by their peers and the judiciary as the future leaders of the Commonwealth’s legal community. Will was also named a 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Pennsylvania SuperLawyer Rising Star, a publication of Thomson Reuters business, in accordance with its procedures, a designation bestowed on only the top 2.5% of Pennsylvania attorneys under the age of 40.  In 2011, The Legal Intelligencer and PA Law Weekly named Will a “Pennsylvania Diversity Attorney of the Year”, an award given out only once every two years to 20 attorneys of diverse backgrounds for their outstanding professional achievement.

He currently serves as Vice President for the Eastern Region and as the Co-Chairman of the Insurance Coverage & Subrogation Committee of the Pennsylvania Defense Institute (PDI), an organization made up of insurance attorneys, insurance executives, and self-insureds.

Will is active in the National Association of Subrogation Professionals (NASP). He has lectured at NASP conferences on “subrogation ethics” and he was a featured speaker on the “Insured Made Whole Doctrine” at both the 2008 NASP Annual Conference and the 2009 NASP Litigation Skills Conference. Will has also served as a “track leader” for NASP’s Litigation Skills Conference (2010 - Tucson, AZ). In November 2011, Will spoke at NASP’s Annual Conference (Orlando, FL) on the topic of “Subrogation Ethics – Best Practices”.

Will is also active in the local bar and has served in the Montgomery County Bar Association as Chair of the Diversity Committee (2011); Vice-Chair of the Civil Practice Committee (2009) and as the Vice-Chair of the Diversity Committee (2010). He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania. In April, 2009, Will was featured as a panelist on the topic of “Diversity in Today’s Law Firms” in the Diversity supplement of The Legal Intelligencer. 

Will was also elected to a 3 year term to serve in the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates.  He will sit in the House as a representative serving Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware County attorneys.

Will was a featured speaker on subrogation best practices at both the 2010 (Las Vegas, NV) and 2011 (New Orleans, LA) “America’s Claims Event Conference”; conferences sponsored by Claims Magazine.  Will has also spoken at a Property Subrogation Strategies ExecuSummit (2011) as a presenter on the topic of “Dealing with an Underinsured Insured”.

Will has been a featured speaker on the “Fair Share Act” at both the Pennsylvania Business Council’s (PBC) Executive Leaders Program and the PBC’s Tort Reform Summit (which was aired on the PCN Network).   The PBC is a Commonwealth-wide advocacy organization made up of small and large businesses.  As a recognized thought leader in the area of tort reform, Will was invited in April, 2011 to address the Pennsylvania House of Representative’s Judiciary Committee to discuss House Bill 1, also known as the “Fair Share Act”.

Will also has represented the National Association of Subrogation Professionals, the Pennsylvania Defense Institute and the Pennsylvania Insurance Federation as amici curiae in both the Jones v. Nationwide Insurance Co. class action in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and in the matter of Harnick v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (both cases involving the insurer’s duty to reimburse deductibles upon making a subrogation recovery). In Jones, the court held that insurers may return deductibles to their insureds on a pro rata basis and that the "made whole" subrogation doctrine did not apply to the insured's deductible claim. The Harnick matter was dismissed by the plaintiff.

Will has authored the following articles: Subrogating Spoliation, The Subrogator, p.60 (Fall 2007 ed.); The Road to Partnership in Generation Next, The Legal Intelligencer (2008, Generation Next Supplement); Pennsylvania Courts Address Subrogation “Priority” and the Issue of “Bad Faith”, The Subrogator, p.109 (Winter 2010 ed.); Understanding the Made Whole Doctrine, Claims Magazine (April 2010 ed.).