Jim Restivo, the former head of Reed Smith’s litigation department who spent nearly 50 years at the forefront of asbestos litigation, died Dec. 28. He was 73.

A longtime Pittsburgh community member who was born in Johnstown, Restivo graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1971 and edited the Georgetown Law Journal during his final year of law school. He joined Reed Smith after graduation and made partner in 1977. He spent nearly half a century becoming one of the nation’s leading insurance recovery attorneys with a special focus on asbestos litigation, beginning within the first few years of his time at Reed Smith, according to Dan Booker, a former managing partner of the firm who was in Restivo’s 1971 associate class.