Attorney Sontz was born in the Bronx, New York. He attended high school in southwestern Connecticut. He moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania to study at Washington & Jefferson College, where he graduated magna cum laude and was selected to the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. Attorney Sontz stayed in Western Pennsylvania for law school where he attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. While at Pitt Law, Attorney Sontz was an editor of the Journal of Technology Law and Policy.

After his first year of law school, Attorney Sontz accepted an internship with the Allegheny County Public Defender’s Office (OPD). Attorney Sontz worked as an intern and law clerk at the OPD until he graduated from law school and passed the bar exam. Attorney Sontz then accepted a fulltime position in the appellate unit. Attorney Sontz soon realized that his passion was trial litigation, so he gradually transferred to the trial unit. Within a few years, Attorney Sontz distinguished himself as a talented and zealous trial attorney.

The OPD management recognized Attorney Sontz’s skill, dedication, and meticulous preparation. His practice soon shifted from general trial work to homicide and other complex and high-profile cases. Attorney Sontz became the unofficial homicide case manager, where he was responsible for reviewing and assigning homicide cases to his colleagues. Over the years, Attorney Sontz has represented dozens of clients charged with all degrees homicide from first degree murder to vehicular homicide and DUI homicide. Attorney Sontz is Rule 801 capital certified to represent citizens against whom the Commonwealth seeks the death penalty.

One of Attorney Sontz’s proudest moments as a public defender was when he earned an acquittal following a jury trial for Scott Godesky, a citizen who served 23 years of incarceration for a wrongful conviction of First Degree Murder. Mr. Godesky’s case is memorialized in the National Registry of Exonerations.

Attorney Sontz’s skill and dedication was recognized when he was asked to create a new litigation unit at the OPD called the Major Felony Unit (MFU). Attorney Sontz was promoted to Director of the MFU. As Director of the MFU, Attorney Sontz hand-picked a team of exceptionally talented and dedicated lawyers to handle the OPD’s most serious felony cases. The MFU instituted a holistic and vertical representation model . Each case was assigned an MFU Attorney, an MFU investigator and a social worker from the very beginning. These professionals would work as a team to develop the best possible defense.

While serving at the deputy director of the MFU, Attorney Sontz was then asked to serve as the acting director of the trial unit. Attorney Sontz agreed to perform both roles. His primary focus was on streamlining internal procedures, eliminating redundancy, and collecting data and statistics to explain the MFU and trial unit caseload and resource allocation. To accomplish this goal, Attorney Sontz built a database to accurately track caseloads. In addition to his managerial and supervisory duties, Attorney Sontz maintained a full major felony caseload comprised mostly of homicides and sexual offenses.

In December, 2020, Attorney Sontz accepted a position as the First Assistant with the Lancaster County Office of the Public Defender, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While in Lancaster, Attorney Sontz performed managerial and supervisory duties while maintaining a full pretrial and trial caseload. Attorney Sontz represented clients in the magistrate courts of Lancaster County as well as the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas.

Attorney Sontz’s move to Lancaster was short lived. In June, 2021, Attorney Sontz accepted a position in Erie, Pennsylvania where he practiced federal criminal law. Attorney Sontz’s federal practice focused on the counties in northwestern Pennsylvania, including Erie, Crawford, Warren, Venango, Mercer, Forest, Clarion, and Elk counties. Attorney Sontz also handled federal Pittsburgh cases, including a federal homicide case.

In early 2023, Attorney Sontz decided that the time was right to open his own law practice after more than 15 years in public service to the citizens of Pennsylvania. Attorney Sontz has dedicated his life and career to advocating for, and defending, his fellow citizens accused of crimes.

Hobbies: Attorney Sontz is an avid runner. In 2015, Attorney Sontz completed the Steamtown Marathon in 2 hours and 51 minutes, winning his age group.