Bar Association Celebrates Historic Group of ‘Women Who Inspire’

By Rachel Kipp

A historic group of women leaders joined the Association for its June 20 Summer Quarterly. As they reflected on their respective paths to careers in law and politics, the speakers shared two key pieces of advice: Don’t be afraid to be yourself, and make sure to lift others up along the way. 

The Summer Quarterly is traditionally dedicated to the legacy of Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. For the event’s keynote address, Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Rep. Joanna McClinton discussed how Higginbotham’s life and career inspired her rise to leadership. Following her remarks, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, President Judges Anne Lazarus, Renee Cohn Jubelirer and Nina Wright Padilla and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Jacqueline Romero discussed the unique impact of women leaders and shared their advice for young attorneys. 

The event also included the presentation of the 2024 Cheryl Ingram Advocate for Justice Award to Stephanie Haynes, longtime executive director of Philadelphia Family Pride, and the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Award to Danielle Banks, partner at Stradley Ronon and Association Diversity Chair, and recognizing the law students receiving the 2024 Eve Biskind Klothen Pro Bono Distinction Award. 

'The Original Trailblazer'

“Judge Higginbotham left his mark on history, on the community and in our entire country as the original trailblazer,” McClinton said. “It would be easy to fill this time to highlight all of his achievements…. There are so many lessons from his life, his career and his character that I aim to emulate … and that anyone can apply to make each and every one of us more empathetic, more humble and more supportive leaders.” 

Higginbotham was a pioneering judge, activist, scholar, historian, and presidential adviser. Throughout his career – as the youngest and first Black District Attorney for  the City of Philadelphia; as a founding partner of  the City’s first Black law firm, Norris, Schmidt, Green Harris, & Higginbotham, and in three decades on the federal bench – Higginbotham fought institutionalized racism in the legal system and was a lifelong champion of  equal and civil rights. He wrote more than 650 legal opinions, contributed to more than 100  publications as a historian. 

“It’s not easy to be the first,” said McClinton, the first woman and second Black person to serve as Pennsylvania Speaker of the House and the first woman in the state to be elected floor leader for either party. “But I try to carry myself with the confidence, with the respect and with the grace that Judge Higginbotham epitomized.” 

Higginbotham was nominated by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1964. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, where he served for 16 years, including two years as Chief Judge. After retiring from the Court in 1993, Higginbotham was a professor of jurisprudence at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

“Judge Higginbotham used his lived experience growing up in the Jim Crow era and the economic challenges he endured and the inequitable treatment he saw every day to advise South Africa in its transition to democratic elections. I try to use my lived experience every day to inform my own work and encourage others to do it as well. Each one of our unique experiences is valuable,” McClinton said. 

Reflecting on the breadth of the work that Higginbotham was able to accomplish in so many fields, McClinton noted that there is no single path to take to success and that she tries to tell students that they don’t need to feel pressure to know exactly what they want to do for a career. 

“Each and every one of us is able to write our own story,” McClinton said. 

Following McClinton’s remarks, Chancellor Jen Coatsworth introduced the panelists, who talked briefly about how they reached the positions they are in today, and also some of the most important lessons they have learned along the way:

Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd

Pennsylvania’s first female Chief Justice, Todd decided she wanted to be a lawyer when she was 12 years old. “Nobody in my extended family had ever gone to college,” she said. “I was very fortunate that an attorney in my hometown needed a file clerk and for some reason at 12 years old, he thought I could be it…. I worked every summer from ages 12-18 and part time during school years and I fell in love with the law. It ignited a flame that never went out of me.” 

She noted that Pennsylvania is currently unique among other states, with women leaders at the helm of all three statewide appellate courts and two of the three branches of state government (Todd is head of the judicial branch and McClinton and state Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ford lead the legislative branch.) “This is an historic time for women in Pennsylvania,” Todd said.

When Todd entered the legal profession “it was a man’s world…. But I wanted to point out in striving for success as a young woman, there is no reason to be anything other than what you are and who you are in order to make it in what is admittedly a tough profession, “ Todd said. “You can be tough without being a bully, you can be kind without being weak.” 

Pennsylvania Superior Court President Judges Hon. Anne Lazarus

Lazarus went to college aspiring to be a doctor, but after doing some volunteer work with a man who had had the last lobotomy in the United States she changed to law after realizing “if he had had an appropriate lawyer representing him, it would not have happened.” 

When asked what women bring to leadership positions, Lazarus said she thinks that women are more willing to listen, “to listen to the other side or just to listen to what’s important to people in the office.” 

As a young lawyer, she recalled that it was a very big deal that women wear a suit to the office. “I refused to do that,” she said. “You have to be yourself; you have to be true to yourself, you have to understand that in the law there is no one right answer, there are lots of different roads, lots of different styles and you can do things lots of different ways.” 

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court President Judge Hon. Renee Cohn Jubelirer

For Jubelirer, deciding to become an attorney “was like walking into a dark room and someone opened the blinds – I still feel that way about the law.” 

She recalled as a young lawyer that the small number of women lawyers were “advised not to smile, not to stand out.” For years, Jubelirer wore dark suits and tried not to smile. “It was very isolating” she said. “So what I have learned is that it is not a problem to smile, to empathize, to listen, to stand out. With more women leaders and diverse leaders, people can be their authentic selves and be taken seriously. With more women in leadership roles and with more diverse leaders, people can picture themselves doing the same thing.” 

Jubelirer offered one additional piece of advice: “Don’t be afraid to take risks and to fail. When things don’t go well … recover, reflect, retool and retry.” 

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas President Judge Hon. Nina Wright Padilla

Growing up, Padilla’s mother was “extraordinary – she always made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do.” 

When a high school counselor tried to convince Padilla to settle for a two-year college, the next day, her mother came home with an application to the University of Maryland. “Sometimes, there will be naysayers in your life, negative people,” she said. “You have to look to the positive people.” 

Padilla noted that the Court of Common Pleas has only started to become more diverse in its leadership within the last 25 years. “Since then, we have had a lot of diverse president judges, which is important, it does give a different perspective, “ she said. “It’s really important to have diversity and one of the things I wanted to talk about is if you don’t have diversity around you, then you be the one to start it.” 

U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon

While Scanlon came from a family of lawyers, she is the first of them to be female. As a young lawyer, she recalled finding a community and a calling through the Association’s Public Interest Section. Through pro bono work, she said, she worked on and became aware of issues that still inform her work in Congress today. 

Her political career began with serving on a local school board and she recalled how as more women joined the board, the issues that it focused on began to evolve from being “all about construction and taxes” to spending more time on topics like nutrition and childhood development. 

She said in her experience, women also tend to be more concerned with “how to get from point A to point B and less on it being a zero sum game or this is a contest – I don’t care whose name is on this bill, let’s just get this done.” 

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Jacqueline Romero

Romero, who is the first woman, Latina and openly LGBTQ person to serve in her role, grew up in her family’s diner, listening to the conversations of lawyers who would come in for a meal. “I would listen to them talking about cases and think ‘That’s so cool’,” she said.

When she was in school, Romero recalls actively seeking mentors and also finding a family of first-generation law students at Rutgers “who like me, were figuring it out for the first time.” She said her background has given her the tools to accomplish goals like expanding the office’s violent crime unit despite budget pressures.

“Coming from very little and coming from the background I come from, I know what collaboration is, I know what partnership is, I know how to get the job done with very little money,” Romero said.  

The event's firm sponsors were Margolis Edelstein, Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig, and Stradley Ronon at the gold level and Fox Rothschild, Tucker Law Group and White and Williams at the silver level. The event was also supported by annual partners USI Affinity, MyBenefitAdvisor, Wealth Enhancement Group, bit-x-bit, ProvitSolv, M&T Bank and Alevistar. 

Rachel Kipp is director of communications and marketing at the Philadelphia Bar Association.