Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Hon. Debra Todd was honored with the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2024 Justice Brennan Distinguished Jurist Award during the Bench-Bar & Annual Conference in Atlantic City on Saturday, September 21. The award recognizes her long career of public service, including making significant improvements to the administration of justice, particularly for underserved populations in Pennsylvania.
“When I heard that Chief Justice Todd was nominated for the Brennan Award this year I said, ‘Well of course,’” Chancellor Jen Coatsworth said. “The Chief has been an incredible leader and an inspiration to so many women and lawyers across the Commonwealth. As the first female Chief Justice, she is a trailblazer who sets standards to which we can all aspire….. However, it is her dedication to giving back to the legal community and the community at large that truly sets her apart.”
Todd became Pennsylvania’s first female Chief Justice on October 1, 2022, She was elected to the Supreme Court in 2007 and previously served as a judge on the Superior Court from 2000-2007.
Prior to becoming a member of the judiciary, Todd maintained a trial law practice in Pittsburgh with a focus on complex civil litigation. A native of Ellwood City, Pa., and a graduate of Chatham College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, she began her career as an in-house litigation attorney for U.S. Steel.
An elected member of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County and the American Law Institute, and an alumna and former board member of Leadership Pittsburgh, Todd is a frequent lecturer and panelist for CLE programs on appellate practice and procedure, ethics, elder justice, child abuse and veterans’ issues.
In 2022 Todd received the University of Pittsburgh Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert Distinguished Jurist Award and in 2023 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Chatham University and was honored as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. In 2024, University of Pittsburgh law school unveiled a portrait of Todd to be displayed at the school and she was named USA Today’s Woman of the Year for Pennsylvania.
“Chief Justice Todd is a true visionary,” Brennan Committee Chair and 2019 Chancellor Shelli Fedullo said. “It is an honor to know her and an honor to call her Madam Chief Justice.”
The nomination of Todd for the Brennan Award cited her record of “innovative leadership” particularly in programs to help vulnerable populations, including the Court’s work on elder justice initiatives. Todd headed the Court’s Elder Justice Task Force, which was created in 2013 and whose research resulted in 130 recommendations for action to promote greater access to justice and protections of the rights of older Pennsylvanians.
The recommendations resulted in the creation of the Office and Advisory Council on Elder Justice, the launch of the statewide guardianship tracking system and the award of a $3 million, 3-year federal grant for guardianship reform. The Task Force’s recommendations also resulted in the creation of the state’s Elder & Civil Justice Resource Center in Philadelphia’s City Hall.
In her remarks, Todd said that Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., for whom the award is named, has been “a hero of mine” since her college days.
“Along with a group of attorneys from Pittsburgh, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and it was my privilege that Justice Brennan was the Justice who delivered that oath,” Todd said. “Justice Brennan was known for his landmark decision and writing the majority opinion in Baker v. Carr [which established the right of federal courts to review redistricting issues] … a decision that is near and dear to my heart and one I look to every day in my role on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, especially during election season.”
She also used her remarks to look back on the significant barriers that women have faced throughout history in pursuing careers in law and on the bench, often fighting for decades to be able to enter law school, practice law or to decide cases as a judge. Todd called on the audience to celebrate those who overcame deep adversity to be the “the first,” making it just a little easier for other to follow.
“When I think of the Philadelphia Bar Association, I think of trailblazers who paved the way for women and people of color on the bench and in the bar,” Todd said. Todd was just the second woman elected to a 10-year term on the Supreme Court in its 300-year history, but she noted that today, women judges are the majority on the both the state Superior and Commonwealth Courts, including both President Judges of those courts, and that half of all sitting judges in Philadelphia are women.
“This slow but ultimate ascent of women is a crucial component of all of our courts and a sign of the significant progress in bringing women’s perspectives and commitment to gender equality to the courts, progress that will surely continue in the future,” Todd said.
