Chancellor's Reception Jan. 9

All members of the Philadelphia legal community are invited to a complimentary reception in honor of Deborah R. Gross, 90th Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, on Monday, Jan. 9 from 5-7 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt at The Bellevue, Broad and Walnut streets. No RSVP is necessary. This is the event in which even the busiest leaders of the legal community patiently wait in line to wish the new Chancellor, and each other, good luck in the year ahead.

Time to Renew Your Membership

Renew Your Membership Today!

It is that time of year when we ask you to renew your membership in the nation's oldest association of lawyers. Your membership dues are the lifeblood of our Association, and have not been increased in over seven years. The 2017 PA Senate will be veto-proof so the Bar Association will need to be particularly active on your behalf this year fighting against the sales tax on legal services, and fighting for legislation that improves the laws of our Commonwealth. Additionally, it will be a busy year for the Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention in its evaluation of judicial candidates for our state appellate courts and local trial courts.

Renew today. We look forward to your continued membership and welcome your ideas and suggestions on ways to improve our work.

Deborah R. Gross
2017 Chancellor
Philadelphia Bar Association



Upcoming Philadelphia Bar Association CLE Courses

The Philadelphia Bar Association, a statewide Continuing Legal Education (CLE) provider in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, offers CLE courses to lawyers and members of the business and legal communities throughout the region. Lawyers and other professionals can turn to the Philadelphia Bar Association for convenient, high-quality, low-cost CLE courses on the latest issues, legislation and regulations.

As an added benefit, Philadelphia Bar Association members will be able to receive six free CLE credits that will be offered as three, two-credit courses on dates to be announced.

Featured Philadelphia Bar Association CLE <

VIDEO ENCORE CLE - Be the Judge, Be the Jury… Become an Arbitrator! Jan. 11

If you missed the live presentation of this practical and entertaining presentation, you can attend this video encore and learn how to conduct your first or next arbitration

With more than 20,000 cases a year concluded at the arbitration level, the Compulsory Arbitration Program in Philadelphia County is one of the most successful programs of its kind in the nation. Compulsory Arbitration in the First Judicial District is controlled by the arbitration rules of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and the Philadelphia Civil Rules. Compulsory arbitration was created as a means of efficiently disposing of smaller civil cases and conserving judicial resources by requiring as a first step that such cases be tried before a panel of three local court-appointed attorneys, with the understanding that any party can later appeal the decision and obtain a new trial…READ MORE

CLE - Drinking Water Contamination Jan. 17

Hosted by: Environmental and Energy Law Committee

Safe and available drinking water is essential to human life. The Safe Drinking Water Act is designed to ensure that public water supplied to homes and businesses is potable and that consumers are alerted to the presence of contaminants or risks. Notwithstanding the beneficial protections afforded by the Act and its implementing regulations, recent events have raised concerns about the safety of public drinking water and resulted in lawsuits seeking damages and remedial actions to enhance public safety…READ MORE

CLE - Legal Name Changes Jan. 25

Co-Hosted by the Philadelphia Bar Association LGBT Rights Committee and the Mazzoni Center

Transgender people who are transitioning sometimes have to jump through legal hoops to get the documentation changed to reflect their chosen name and gender. Pennsylvania's laws make it possible but not exactly easy. Many young transgender people are reluctant to take legal steps to get their names changed because they don’t want to deal with the hassle, or because they find official acknowledgement of their wrongly-identified gender and old name to be extremely embarrassing, especially in a courtroom…READ MORE

CLE - Dealing W/ Difficult Situations & Negotiating Outcomes Jan. 31

Hosted by: Women in the Profession Committee

Effective leaders are skillful negotiators and undeterred by complexity. In this CLE leadership seminar, featured speaker, Dr. Nataliya Adelson will equip attendees with the innovative strategies needed to excel in difficult situations and at the bargaining table…READ MORE

Full course calendar here.

Call for Submissions to The Philadelphia Lawyer

The Philadelphia Lawyer magazine is looking for creative and fresh law-related content to publish in upcoming editions. Take your sense of humor or adventure, your urge to critique or your affinity for a special area of law and put pen to paper.

All submissions must be original and previously unpublished. For more information on submission guidelines, email tplmag@philabar.org.


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FJD MLK Day of Service Project Jan. 16

Please join the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania for its Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Project at South Philadelphia High School on Jan. 16. Volunteers will be working on beautification projects and with the Mural Arts Program's Restorative Justice Guild to create an original mural that will adorn the interior of the school.

A day that appropriately celebrates a man who gave so much of himself for the improvement of society as a whole, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is also a time when hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country pay it forward in order to give back. Dr. King often spoke of justice, empowerment, love and peace- especially in the toughest of settings and under the most improbable circumstances. The FJD is in the unique position to see, on a daily basis, the importance of these virtues.

South Philadelphia High School is located at 2101 S. Broad St., Philadelphia. Available shifts are between 8-11 a.m., 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Sign up for a shift by calling 215-683-7053. Water, breakfast and lunch will be served.

Volunteer Opportunity: Young Friends of Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project

The Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP) uses direct service and policy advocacy to transform the experiences of kids prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system. They partner with court-involved youth, their families and lawyers to develop holistic, humanizing narratives that mitigate the facts of each case; get cases transferred to the juvenile system; and make crucial connections to community resources providing education, healthcare, housing and employment. Their ultimate goal is to keep children out of adult jails and prisons.

For more information on how to volunteer, click here.

Volunteer Panels Needed for Federal Court

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania invites you to join one of its prisoner civil rights and employment panels.

The members of the prisoner civil rights panel provide legal representation to prison inmates for constitutional violations by law enforcement officers before the inmate was incarcerated that relate to the matter(s) for which the inmate is then incarcerated.

The employment panel members represent plaintiffs in cases that are brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination Employment Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and state claims which can be properly appended to federal employment claims.

For further information about joining the prisoner civil rights panel, please contact Panel Coordinators Stephen D. Brown Esq. at (215) 994-2240 or Samuel W. Silver Esq. at (215) 751-2309. To learn more about the employment panel, please contact Panel Coordinators Alan B. Epstein Esq. at (215) 241-8832 or Ari R. Karpf Esq. at (215) 639-0801. The Court's Volunteer Panel Administrator, Elaine Battle, can be reached at (267) 299-7034.

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