The Honorable Bruce L. Castor, Jr. worked in various prosecutors’ offices from 1981 to 1985 beginning as an intern and ultimately becoming the twice-elected District Attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania from 2000 to 2008. Mr. Castor later was twice-elected Commissioner of Montgomery County and assumed that office on January 7, 2008 concentrating on Public Safety and related matters building on his career in law enforcement. Mr. Castor retired from Montgomery County on January 4, 2016 after 30 years of service. Mr. Castor next became Solicitor General and acting Attorney General of Pennsylvania during a time of great turmoil in that office.

Mr. Castor has practiced civil litigation for more than 10 years in addition to his three decades in law enforcement. Bruce focuses his practice on general civil litigation (especially for victims of crime), trial strategy and tactics, and conducting discreet internal investigations for corporate clients. He is a trial lawyer. Bruce formally acted as Solicitor to the Perkiomen Valley School District from 2015 to 2018. Numerous legal groups and publications routinely list Mr. Castor among America’s top lawyers.

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 for his work investigating and prosecuting homicides. He received state-wide recognition for his efforts by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on two occasions, as well as by Governors Ridge and Casey. Mr. Castor holds the prestigious “AV” rating, has been listed on the Martindale-Hubble Lawyer Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers since 1996, named a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer,” by Philadelphia Magazine from 2005 to 2008 & 2011 to present, and among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America 2012 to present. The Citizens Crime Commission of the Greater Delaware Valley honored Mr. Castor multiple times during his prosecutorial career, and he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Police Hall of Fame in 2007, a rare honor for a prosecutor. In 2009, Mr. Castor was chosen by his peers as a Fellow (later elevated to Senior Fellow) of the Litigation Counsel of America, the national trial lawyer honor society, and eventually appointed a member of Elite American Lawyers, and of the National Academy of Jurisprudence.

Prior to becoming acting 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 multiple occasions. Most recently, Mr. Castor served a three-year term as a Special Assistant District Attorney for Centre County, PA. finally leaving law enforcement after that term ended on December 31, 2017, though he did spend several weeks as a Special Assistant District Attorney in Susquehanna County to address a specific case for the District Attorney there at the time. Bruce has frequently lectured on topics related to trial tactics, courtroom preparation, criminal investigations, and prosecutions.

In addition to Pennsylvania, Mr. Castor is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the Federal District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western (pending) Districts of Pennsylvania. Mr. Castor is a Past-President of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys’ Association, a member of the Pennsylvania and Montgomery Bar Associations, and was a charter member of the Pennsylvania Homicide Investigators’ Association. Bruce worked on the board of the Montgomery Bar Association and further 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 of the Supreme Court, and on the Senate Select Commission to improve the criminal justice system. As acting Attorney General, Mr. Castor was an ex officio member of the Criminal Rules Committee of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Mr. Castor acquired his undergraduate degree from Lafayette College, receiving his diploma from Astronaut Neil Armstrong, and his law degree from Washington and Lee University where he received the only graduation prize awarded for criminal law from 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 in 1993.

Mr. Castor is a life long resident of Montgomery County who grew up in Abington and now lives in Lederach, Lower Salford Township with his wife, Elizabeth. The couple have been married since 1989 and are proud of their two grown children, Bruce, III (an assistant district attorney based in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County), and Alexandra (a member of the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts’ Office in Norristown). Bruce joined his long-time friend, former Lower Merion Township Commissioner and senatorial candidate Lance Rogers, in the practice of law in 2013, forming their partnership after Bruce had practiced law as a shareholder and director of the Blue Bell-based litigation firm of Elliott, Greenleaf from 2008 until 2013, a firm with which he maintains close ties. Bruce coached baseball for many years in the Souderton and Harleysville areas, and he and his family are members of Abington Presbyterian Church (where he and Elizabeth were married) and where Bruce taught Sunday school. Bruce is a Master Mason, a 33rd Degree Scottish Rite mason, a Knight Templar, and a Shriner.