William Prickett
Retired

Before retiring in 2008, William Prickett was the firm's senior member. He is a son of William Prickett, Sr. and grandson of William S. Prickett, the original founder of the firm in 1888. Mr. Prickett received a B.A. from Princeton University and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1954. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the U.S. Marine Corps as a Lieutenant during the Korean War. Mr. Prickett was admitted in Delaware and the District of Columbia in 1955 and later in Pennsylvania as well as the Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, and to the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Prickett has traveled extensively in Europe, Russia, China, Tibet, Mongolia and Japan, both professionally and privately. Mr. Prickett is bilingual in French.

Mr. Prickett was President of the Delaware State Bar Association in 1974. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The American Judicature Society awarded Mr. Prickett its Special Merit Citation in 1988. Mr. Prickett was the original Chairman of the Delaware IOLTA Committee and conceived and instituted the "opt out" feature of the Delaware IOLTA program. He was a member of Delaware Supreme Court's Clients' Security Trust Fund Committee starting in 1981. Mr. Prickett was a member and later Chairman of the Governor of Delaware's Judicial Nominating Commission.

Originally, Mr. Prickett did general litigation work in the State and Federal Courts in Delaware. He served as Chairman of the Rules Committee of the Superior Court. He was appointed by the Governor of Delaware and served for a number of years as a Special Deputy Attorney in cases seeking recovery for the State for overpayments in highway work. Mr. Prickett, together with Mason E. Turner, Jr., another firm partner, were retained by the Governor and the Attorney General to represent the State of Delaware in the school desegregation litigation stemming from Brown v. Topeka.

Mr. Prickett represented Delaware conservation organizations in Duke v. Shell Oil Co.

For the last 15 years of his active practice, Mr. Prickett was primarily involved in Chancery and Federal corporate litigation. He served on the Rules Committee of the Court of Chancery as well as the Corporate Law Committee. Mr. Prickett has been the successful lead counsel in significant corporate cases, including Weinberger v. UOP, Smith v. Van Gorkom In re Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. Litigation and Malone v. Brincat. Together with other members of the firm, he has published Law Review articles on these and other corporate cases.

Mr. Prickett's career includes substantial pro bono work for the Bar, the Courts and the public as well as work for charities and educational institutions. In addition, Mr. Prickett was a founding member of the Brandywine River Museum created to house locally the works of the Wyeth family and other Delaware and Pennsylvania artists. Mr. Prickett was the first President of the Grand Opera House, Inc.  During his tenure the Grand Opera House, originally built in 1873 in Wilmington, was completely restored and made Delaware's Center for the Performing Arts. 

Professional and Community Activities

• The Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• Delaware State (President, 1974; Member, Corporation Law Section; Chair, Judicial Nominating Commission, 1984-1985) and American Bar Associations
• American Law Institute

Publications

• In My Father's House (Essays)
• More Ado (Essays)
• Risk in the Afternoon - Some of the Pleasures and Perils of Foxchasing
• The Road to Jericho - A Contemporaneous Tale of Good and Evil (Novel)
• Dearly Beloved (Novel)
• Pandorian Consequences (Novel)

Education

• Princeton University (B.A., 1949)
• Harvard University (LL.B., 1954)