Hon. Bruce L. Castor, Jr.

Bruce L. Castor, Jr. was a prosecutor since 1986 and served as the elected District Attorney of Montgomery County Pennsylvania from 2000 to 2008.  In 2007, he was elected Commissioner of Montgomery County and assumed that office on January 7, 2008, retiring January 4, 2016, prior to becoming Solicitor General (and later) Attorney General of Pennsylvania.  Mr. Castor is a partner in the Philadelphia firm of van der Veen, O’Neill, Hartshorn, Levin and formerly was a shareholder and director of the Blue Bell based litigation firm of Elliott, Greenleaf.  He focuses his practice on general civil litigation and trial strategy and tactics, and conducting investigations.

During Mr. Castor’s law enforcement career, he prosecuted primarily homicide cases.  In 1995, he received the Trial Advocacy Award from the National Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation for his work investigating and prosecuting homicides. He has received recognition for his efforts by the state legislature on two occasions, as well as by Governors Ridge and Casey.  In 1990, he was named by the Chamber of Commerce as Montgomery County’s Law Enforcement Man of the Year.  Mr. Castor has been listed on the Martindale-Hubble Lawyer Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers since 2000 and has been named a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer,” by Philadelphia Magazine from 2005 to 2008 & 2011 to present, and a Top 100 Trial Lawyer in America 2012 to present.  The Citizens Crime Commission of the Greater Delaware Valley honored Mr. Castor multiple times during his career, and he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Police Hall of Fame in 2007.  In 2009, Mr. Castor was chosen as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, the national trial lawyer honor society, and eventually a member of Elite American Lawyers, and the National Academy of Jurisprudence.

Prior to becoming Attorney General, Solicitor General, County Commissioner, and District Attorney, Mr. Castor served as First Assistant District Attorney, Deputy District Attorney (Chief of Trials), Assistant District Attorney in charge of the Major Crimes Unit, and as an assistant district attorney on the Sex Crimes Unit. He has supervised the County Investigating Grand Jury and conducted numerous wiretap investigations. He has also acted as special prosecutor for the Office of Attorney General and for other counties in Pennsylvania on many occasions.  Currently, Mr. Castor serves a Special Assistant District Attorney for Centre County, PA.  He frequently lectured on topics related to criminal investigation and prosecution.

In addition to Pennsylvania, Mr. Castor is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the Federal District Court for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.  Mr. Castor is a Past-President of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys’ Association, a member the Pennsylvania and Montgomery Bar Associations, and a charter member of the Pennsylvania Homicide Investigators’ Association.  He has served on the board of the Montgomery Bar Association and further served as a Trustee of Norristown State Hospital having been appointed by Governor Ridge and again by Governor Rendell.  He served on the Juvenile Court Rules Committee of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the First Judicial District Reform Commission, and on the Senate Select Commission to improve the criminal justice system, (briefly) the Criminal Rules Committee of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and on the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Mr. Castor acquired his undergraduate degree from Lafayette College and his law degree from Washington and Lee University where he received the only graduation prize in criminal law rom the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell.  He has received advanced education from the National College of District Attorneys and at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Mr. Castor is a life long resident of Montgomery County and lives in Lower Salford Township with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children, Bruce III, and Alexandra.