William Pendleton Hackney, a top corporate lawyer and piano-playing social host who knew art, music and cooking as well as the law, died at his Shadyside home Monday of kidney failure. He was 82.

He was a Harvard Law School graduate who was a retired senior partner at Reed Smith Shaw & McClay, a member of the Duquesne Club and held other titles and memberships appropriate to a lawyer of his stature.

But beyond that, Mr. Hackney amazed friends with his ability to play Gershwin tunes, explain the meaning of words, prepare liver pate and make the world a lighter, more knowledgeable place for a broad circle of friends.

"He could put anyone at ease," said longtime friend Harry Schwalb, who was formerly married to Mr. Hackney's present wife, Myrna. "He was the most courtly, diplomatic, gracious human being, and it was in his nature -- nothing he put on."

Born in Uniontown, Mr. Hackney graduated from Shady Side Academy and Princeton University before receiving his law degree in 1951. During World War II, he served four years as an Army Air Force lieutenant flying transports in the Pacific.

He spent 43 years in corporate law at Reed Smith before his retirement in 1994, supplemented afterward by several years of part-time service as counsel to the firm. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention in 1967-68 and a recognized authority on various aspects of corporate governance, banking and finance.

"He was at the top of the top tier" among lawyers in his field, said Charles Cohen, chairman of Cohen & Grigsby, who worked under Mr. Hackney and then as a partner with him at Reed Smith. "He had a combination of superb intellect and an encyclopedic knowledge of the law, and how to apply it. ... On top of that, he had a highly developed sense of ethics."

Mr. Hackney's first wife, the late Doris Fast, was a busy local actress. Their large home in Shadyside, full of books and artwork and with two pianos in the dining room, was frequent host to actors, artists, musicians, lawyers and others brought together in an interesting mix. Mr. Hackney would start them off with his signature martinis, prepare gourmet dishes like his steak tartare and poached pears and play medleys of Gershwin, Porter and Kern for entertainment afterward.

His interest in the visual and performing arts led to tenures as president of the Arts and Crafts Center of Pittsburgh, which is now the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and as vice president of the Pittsburgh Playhouse, where Doris often performed.

Mr. Hackney had an easygoing nature, but not in the sense of complacency. He drilled his children to research words in the dictionary, just as he did himself, to make sure they weren't using anything incorrectly. He stretched himself, whether to learn the fine points of cooking or to brighten up his Union Trust Building law office with a mural-size abstract painting when his partners favored more conventional appearances.

He was a member of the Harvard Yale Princeton Club and Pittsburgh Golf Club and was on the Session at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two children, W. Penn Hackney of Park Place and Jeanne Kingsland of Aspinwall; and six grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Ave.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Peter E. Hackney Fund at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Suite 1-B, 5150 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh 15232.