Law Week Programs Need Volunteers

The Young Lawyers Division is seeking volunteer attorneys from the Philadelphia Bar Association for Law Week programs during the week of April 28-May 2. Volunteers are needed for Lawyer in the Classroom, Legal Advice Live!, LegalLine and Lawyer for a Day.

• Legal Advice Live! Monday, April 28: Legal Advice Live! kicks off the week with dozens of Philadelphia attorneys gathering to providing free, in-person legal advice from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Free Library of Philadelphia's Central Branch, 1901 Vine St. This important and rewarding event is designed to reach those in our community who often need legal services but cannot afford them or otherwise do not know where to turn for advice. If you are available to volunteer your time and expertise, please contact Eileen Murphy at emurphy@mfingerman.com and let her know your area of practice.

• Lawyer in the Classroom - Tuesday, April 29 - Wednesday, April 30: The YLD sends its best and brightest minds into our local classrooms to answer questions about the legal profession and to address students' concerns about the law and the legal issues that affect them as they enter adulthood. Contact Philip Amoa at pamoa@mccarter.com to volunteer.

• LegalLine - Wednesday, April 30: Free and confidential legal advice will be given to those who call the LegalLine hotline from 5 to 8 p.m. Attorneys will staff a phone bank at the headquarters of the Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St., 11th Floor. Contact Courtenay Dunn at courtenay.r.dunn@gmail.com.

• Lawyer for a Day - Friday, May 2: The culminating event of the Bar Association's Law Week 2013 celebration, volunteer attorneys from the Philadelphia Bar Association will accompany approximately 100 Philadelphia students from 14 different high schools into the Criminal Justice Center and City Hall to witness live court proceedings. Learn more from Shabrei Parker at shabrei.parker@gmail.com.

Brown v. Board of Education Anniversary Event May 2

As May marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, join members of the Philadelphia Bar Association and The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia as we host a commemorative event in honor of this historic occasion on Friday, May 2 at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, 419 S. 6th St.

The program will include keynote remarks from Harold Jackson, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial page. Additional speakers include Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor William P. Fedullo and The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia President Amber Racine.

The event will feature the premiere of a commemorative video created especially for this occasion featuring numerous Philadelphia attorneys and judges who will offer personal reflections and discuss the impact the Brown v. Board of Education decision had on their lives and careers.

The formal program begins at 4 p.m. and will be immediately followed by a reception in the church's historic museum at 5 p.m. Registration cost is $15 and will serve as a contribution toward Mother Bethel A.M.E. Registration is required by Tuesday, April 29. Walk-ins will not be permitted. Click here to register.

Applicants Sought for FJD 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. Now entering its fourth year, the Judicial Fellowship Program was created in 2011 to address the difficult hiring climate for lawyers that many recent law graduates were facing.

The Judicial Fellowship Program aims to provide high-caliber law graduates with substantive experience in the law, and to support the Court in carrying out key functions. Fellows volunteer their time, have the same responsibilities as regular paid judicial law clerks, and gain the benefit of training by judges in the Philadelphia courts. Judicial fellows' service helps our high-volume court system maintain its superior quality of service to the Philadelphia community. Judges help judicial fellows by mentoring and providing legal experience that will enhance their competitiveness for paid employment as new lawyers.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Lisa M. Rau developed the program with help from Professor Chapin Cimino of the Drexel University School of Law 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 Judicial Fellowship Program quickly expanded and now welcomes graduates from law schools from across the country. The Philadelphia Bar Association is a supporter of the Judicial Fellowship Program.

The application process is streamlined and selective. Prospective judicial fellows apply directly via email to judges with whom they are interest in working. Judges select judicial fellows from those applicants who apply to them directly. The list of judges with available positions for judicial fellows is provided on the Judicial Fellowship Program's website. 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. Judicial fellows do not commit to any length of service enabling them to leave the fellowship with two weeks' notice to their judge upon obtaining paid employment.

During the first three years of the program, more than 50 judges volunteered to host judicial fellows and the Court hosted 149 judicial fellows from 30 different law schools. As of February 2014, the vast majority of judicial fellows (approximately 84 percent) who left their fellowship departed for paid jobs using their legal skills.

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

Civil Gideon Essay Contest Honors Ken Shear; Entry Deadline May 9

In honor of the retirement of Kenneth Shear, who served as executive director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for 37 years, the "Kenneth Shear Civil Gideon Legal Justice Essay Competition and Scholarship Fund" has been established by the Association and the Philadelphia Bar Foundation to honor Shear's contributions to the Philadelphia legal community.

To raise an endowment to support the Essay Competition and Scholarship Fund, Immediate-Past Chancellor Kathleen D. Wilkinson and Bar Foundation President Deborah Gross are donating seed money to begin the funding of the Essay Competition and the Scholarship Fund in order to award at least one scholarship in 2014. The announcement of the scholarship was made by Wilkinson and Gross at the December Board of Governors meeting.

Full and part-time law students who are in their second or third year of study during the academic year at one of the following six institutions are eligible to enter: Drexel University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Rutgers School of Law - Camden, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Villanova University School of Law and Widener University School of Law (Delaware Campus). Candidates must submit a law review quality submission on Civil Gideon.

The winning author will receive a cash award of $1,500 and serve as an intern, within six months of receiving the award, for 40 hours, on a pro bono basis, to assist the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Foundation with its endeavors through the Philadelphia Civil Gideon Task Force, the state-wide Access to Civil Justice Coalition and/or future statewide Access to Civil Justice Commission, or will serve on another pro bono project of the Philadelphia Bar Association and Philadelphia Bar Foundation, such as service to the Public School System of Philadelphia.

The essay must be no longer than 10 pages or 2,500 words, whichever is shorter. The 2,500-word limitation refers to the text of the submission; footnotes may be a maximum of 1,000 words (in addition to the 2,500 word maximum for text). Endnotes are not permitted.

The essay must be in seminar paper or law journal article format only; submissions in the form of a memorandum, brief, judicial opinion or other type of legal document are not acceptable. The essay may not be previously published or currently accepted for publication in any publication other than in connection with this competition. For a complete list of rules please visit philabarfoundation.org. Please direct additional questions to Merril Zebe, Public Interest Coordinator for the Delivery of Legal Services Committee at mzebe@philabar.org. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. by email on Friday, May 9. Please send submission to Cecelia Driscoll at info@philabarfoundation.org.

All contributions to the Fund should be in the name of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation with an indication in the memo field that the donation is for the purposes of the "Kenneth Shear Civil Gideon Legal Justice Essay Competition and Scholarship Fund." Please mail your check to Jessica Hilburn-Holmes, Philadelphia Bar Foundation, 1101 Market St., 11th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

X, Y, Zs of Real Estate Program Kick Off May 6

Carol Huff will kick off the the X,Y,Zs of Real Estate Program Series on Thursday, May 6 with "Learning to Love Your Lease."

Huff will share special hints and tips when it comes to understanding, negotiating and profiting from office building leases. Attendees are encouraged to bring copies of their office leases.

Having spent over 35 years in the commercial real estate business, Huff has saved her clients in the tens of millions of dollars of lease-related billings and prevented major problems from surfacing in the future once a lease is signed.

Huff has created a series of lectures targeted to help lawyers appreciate that there is much more to commercial real estate and office space than they would think. For the next year, Huff is hosting the quarterly X, Y, Zs of Real Estate Program Series as a benefit to Philadelphia Bar Association members. Program topics will vary and some will feature special guest presenters.

The program begins at 12 p.m. in the 11th Floor Conference Center at the Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St. There is no cost to attend this program. Lunch is available for $8 for members of the Philadelphia Bar Association and $12 for non-members. Cancellations require 24 hours notice. Click here to register.

Superintendent on Future of Public Schools May 12

Dr. William R. Hite Jr., superintendent of The School District of Philadelphia, will join members of the Young Lawyers Division for a discussion that will touch on issues of interest to Philadelphia's young lawyers that currently have or may soon have school-aged children on Monday, May 12.

Dr. Hite will speak about his Action Plan 2.0 and his vision for the future of Philadelphia's public schools, as well as field questions from those in attendance.

The program begins at 12 p.m. in the 11th Floor Conference Center at the Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St. Lunch is available for $8 for members of the Philadelphia Bar Association. There is no cost if you wish to bring your own lunch but advance registration is required. Cancellations require 24 hours notice to receive a refund. Click here to register.

Lunch with Bankruptcy Judges May 5

The Bankruptcy Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association, in conjunction with the Young Lawyers Division and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference, invites young bankruptcy practitioners to a unique opportunity to have lunch with the bankruptcy judges of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Monday, May 5.

The brown bag luncheon, which begins at 12 p.m. at the Dilworth Paxson LLP, 1500 Market St., 3500E, will provide an informal environment for attorneys practicing in the Eastern District to converse with the judges and ask questions about best bankruptcy practices as a young practitioner.

Attending attorneys are required to bring their own lunches, as lunch will not be provided at the event. The luncheon is open to bankruptcy attorneys not past their sixth year of practice and is limited to the first twenty people to respond. Interested parties should contact Evan T. Miller at emiller@bayardlaw.com or (302) 429-4227 or Brya Keilson at bkeilson@gsbblaw.com or (302) 416-3355.

Youth Courts CLE Program April 23

The U.S. Attorney''s Office will present the CLE program "Youth Courts: Lawyers Helping Students" on Wednesday, April 23.

The program will feature remarks from U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger and Chancellor William P. Fedullo and is co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, EducationWorks and Physicians for Social Responsibility. Two substantive CLE credits and 1 ethics CLE credit are available.

This program includes a mock youth court hearing by Strawberry Mansion students, a panel of School District of Philadelphia teachers who run youth courts in their classes, a Philadelphia physician who is a recognized expert on trauma, the researcher who was the principal investigator on the youth court research released last year, and Widener and Temple law students who have developed training models for youth court.

Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. at the U.S. Attorneys Office, 615 Chestnut St. All attendees will have to go thru security clearance so it is suggested that you allow extra time to arrive at the conference room.

To register by phone, contact David Trevaskis at 717-571-7414.Register by email w/ Gabriele Miller-Wagner at gmw@pabar.org.

Chancellor's Forum with Sam Katz on Documentary May 16

Join civic entrepreneur Sam Katz for a discussion of his newest venture as a documentary filmmaker at a Friday, May 16 Chancellor's Forum. In 2008, Katz realized that Philadelphia was the only large American city that lacked its own historical documentary programming. Since then, Katz has worked to build and expand History Making Productions (HMP), an Emmy-Award winning production studio.

HMP's first ongoing series, "Philadelphia: The Great Experiment," documents Philadelphia's expansive history, and will eventually cover 14 episodes. Katz has recently launched additional documentary ventures, including "The Women of Philadelphia." This six-part series will tell the history of the city through the lens of its women, and will focus on different civic sectors in which women have wielded influence and agency.

Sam will discuss the processes and factors involved in the creation of historical documentaries, and will screen a recent episode from "Philadelphia: The Great Experiment." A wine and cheese reception will follow the formal program.

The program is sponsored by LawPay. The program begins at 4 p.m. at The CLE Conference Center on the 10th Floor of the Wanamaker Building, Market and Juniper streets. The reception follows at 5 p.m. The cost of the event is $15 for members of the Philadelphia Bar Association and $25 for non-members. Click here to register.