Volunteers Needed for Bradway High School Mock Trial Competition

It is once again time for the John S. Bradway High School Mock Trial Competition and we need your help to make this year another success. The Young Lawyers Division and Temple University Beasley School of Law team up each year to host this competition. Each spring students from approximately 40 public, private, and parochial schools are given the opportunity play the roles of attorneys and witnesses in a fictitious criminal or civil case, focusing on real legal issues.

We hope that you will join us for an experience that is rewarding for both our volunteer judges and our students. You can sign up to judge as many trials as you would like and each trial will require a two to three hour time commitment.

Please pass this information along to your friends and colleagues. You can direct any questions to Kristy Littman at littmanak@sec.gov or Jim Nixon at james.nixon@pacourts.us.

Click here to view the schedule and sign up to judge. Click here to view this year's case materials.

Meet n' Greet Reception Jan. 23 at Pyramid Club

The Young Lawyers Division, Resident and Fellow/Young Physicians of The Philadelphia County Medical Society, Emerging CPAs of the PICPA and RMA Young Bankers are invited to a meet 'n greet reception on Wednesday, Jan. 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pyramid Club, 1735 Market St.

The evening includes complimentary light hors d'oeuvres, drink specials and 50 percent off any item for our all-day menu. Credit card payment is required for all transactions in the club. Dress Code for the club is business casual.

Space is limited to the first 40 people who register. Click here to register by Friday, Jan. 18.

Business Law Section Annual Reception Jan. 24

The Business Law Section will hold its Annual Reception on Thursday, Jan. 24 at Estia, 1405 Locust St. beginning at 5:30 p.m.

John B. Wright II will be presented with the Section's Dennis H. Replansky Memorial Award. The Section established the award in recognition of Dennis Replansky's career as a lawyer and his contributions to legal, civic, religious and other charitable causes. Replansky was a 51-year-old senior partner at the law firm of Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley when he died in March 1994. He was a former chair of the Business Law Section.

Association Vice Chancellor Albert S. Dandridge III will receive the Section's Inaugural Diversity Award. The Health Care Law Committee will be honored as Committee of the Year and E. David Chanin, chair of the Business Litigation Committee, will be honored as Committee Chair of the Year.

Tickets are $50 for Section members, $60 for non-Section members and $70 for non-members of the Bar Association. Click here to purchase tickets.

FJD Seeks Applicants for Judicial Fellowship Program

Philadelphia judges are seeking to host law school graduates as judicial fellows to provide the graduates with substantive legal experience while benefitting the court system with additional legal talent, as part of the First Judicial District's Judicial Fellowship Program. The program was created in 2011 to address the difficult hiring climate for lawyers that many recent law graduates are facing. Participating law schools include the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Rutgers University Law School, Villanova University School of Law, Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and Widener University School of Law but the judges welcome applicants from any accredited law school.

The Judicial Fellowship Program provides high-caliber law graduates professional development opportunities. At the same time, the judicial fellows help the busy court carry out key functions and maintain its superior quality of service to the Philadelphia community. Judicial fellows work in the civil, criminal, family and orphans divisions of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Courts, carrying out the same duties as paid judicial clerks. The fellowships help recent graduates gain valuable experience and strengthen their marketability for obtaining a paid position in law. Judges select judicial fellows through an application process administered by the court. Each judge and fellow team designs a flexible schedule (minimum of 20 hours per week) that ensures reliable service to the judge but permits the fellow to seek a paid position elsewhere and to leave the fellowship with two weeks' notice upon obtaining paid employment.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Lisa M. Rau developed the program with help from Professor Chapin Cimino of the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University as well as faculty and administrators from career services offices at the University of Pennsylvania's Law School and Temple's Beasley School of Law. The Philadelphia Bar Association is a supporter of the Judicial Fellowship Program.

During the first year of the program's existence, 88 percent of the 30 judicial fellows left their fellowships having successfully secured paid positions.

For additional information and fellowship application forms, please visit courts.phila.gov/jfp.