The Philadelphia Bar Association’s 96th Chancellor, Marc J. Zucker, discussed the organization’s agenda for 2023 Thursday, emphasizing the values of professionalism, ethics, civility, democracy, integrity and professional excellence. He highlighted ambitious plans for the Association including skill-building programs for young lawyers, an increased emphasis on pro bono representation, the creation of an amicus committee to review and partner with others in drafting amicus briefs on key issues, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, and further increasing the visibility of the Association’s Judicial Commission and its recommendations ahead of the 2023 primary.
“There are countless legal service organizations that do great work in this city,” said Zucker, partner at Weir Greenblatt Pierce LLP. “But we — the members of the Philadelphia Bar Association -- have a special role as convener, with our broad constituency and deep involvement in all aspects of the profession, coordinating efforts on a large scale, both outward-looking to help the community, and inward-looking, to help our clients and our profession excel.”
The 2022 Annual Meeting held at The Bellevue Hotel also included a discussion of the Association’s accomplishments during the past year, including the launch of a new member benefit – complimentary access to the legal research tool Decisis, the first fully in-person Bench-Bar conference since 2019-- and continued advocacy on key issues, including the Board of Governors passage of historic resolutions supporting reproductive rights and gun violence prevention.
Zucker noted that the Association will be best positioned to achieve its aggressive goals for 2023 if members from the full diversity of the legal community, including different practice areas and levels of expertise, lend their voices and energy to the efforts.
“We are beginning to recover from the multi-layered impact of a global pandemic, and here at home, we face issues of crushing poverty, of safety concerns and of divisive rhetoric,” Zucker said. “I call upon each of you to join us in defending the rule of law, in supporting initiatives to improve access to justice, in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, in ensuring ethics and professionalism, and making Philadelphia the best venue for us to practice and thrive as a profession.” He characterized the Association’s goals as rooted in values, noting “When we are at our best—as we must be at this time of greatest need—we are an association of values. We honor professionalism, ethics, civility, democracy, integrity and professional excellence. That’s what the public wants, and it is what our profession demands.”
In 2023, the Association will be looking to partner with, and seek ways to add value to, existing partnerships aimed at helping young lawyers improve their advocacy, deposition and trial skills, Zucker said. It also will be encouraging Philadelphia lawyers to increase their commitment to pro bono service.
“We have some of the greatest public interest organizations right here in this city, and a universe of clients that far surpasses the number of volunteers available,” Zucker said.
The Association’s Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention is already beginning the process of investigating and issuing recommendations for 2023 judicial candidates. The Commission’s recommendations have become a go-to resource for learning about candidates for judicial office. In the past two election cycles, only candidates that received “Highly Recommended” or “Recommended” ratings by the Commission were elected to seats on the Court of Common Pleas.
In 2023, there will be at least 11 open spots on the Court of Common Pleas, and at least one open spot on Municipal Court.
“We’ve already made great strides … but we need to do more, in order to support qualified judicial candidates, support diversity among those candidates and ensure that our Commission members and investigators are adequately trained to perform their respective roles,” Zucker said.
The Supreme Court’s 1963 ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright requires states to provide criminal defendants with legal representation in felony cases when they are unable to afford their own. Zucker said the Association will commemorate the landmark anniversary of that decision by “seizing the opportunity to evaluate whether our criminal justice system has been true to the principles articulated in that decision.”
In civil matters like landlord-tenant, foreclosure and family law matters, “ we will review the ways in which our Access to Justice Task Force has advanced the right to counsel in areas where critical rights are in jeopardy and assess what work remains to be done” Zucker said.
The Association will also work with the judiciary to make improvements in the courts, and continue to speak out when judicial independence is under attack. “Just as there is movement at the federal level to provide security for federal judges, we want our state judiciary to feel equally secure,” Zucker said. He also stressed the importance of adequate funding for the courts. “That has an impact on everything they do, and a limitation on funding is itself an attack on judicial independence. We can’t let that happen.
Zucker noted that the Bar Association will continue to work for racial justice in all aspects of the legal profession and the justice system, to advocate for the rule of law and call out processes that suppress democracy, and to honor the deep history of both the Association and the Philadelphia legal community.
“There are lots of other initiatives being considered – from privacy law to sports law, from blockchain and cryptocurrency, to cannabis – and Philadelphia as in the past is on the cutting edge of these developing areas of law,” Zucker said. “Our reach is as far as our energy and expertise will take us.”
The Annual Meeting also honored the winners of the Citizens Bank Achievement Award, the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Award and the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “Pursuit of Justice” Writing Competition.
The O’Connor Award, which honors outstanding women in the legal profession, recognized Marilou E. Watson, partner at Fox Rothschild. Watson has advanced women in the legal profession and beyond through her work serving on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and Women of Color Research Committee and as a mentor to students on the high school, college undergraduate and law school level.
“Not everyone gets the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams and sometimes that’s because others don’t believe they are significant or worthy,” Watson said. “I’ve been determined to do all I can to uplift other women and people not often given the chance to thrive. I encourage everyone here today to do something, to do one thing to uplift and propel someone forward because you never know how you may make a difference in their lives and ultimately change the world.”
The Citizens Bank Achievement Award recipients were Catherine Carr and Joseph Sullivan, longtime chairs of the Association’s Civil Gideon and Access to Justice Task Force. In that role, they oversaw the commissioning of a 2018 study, the Stout Report, on the economic and other benefits of enacting a right to counsel in evictions. In 2019, as a result of the Task Force’s work, the City became the fifth in the nation to adopt a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction. The program launched in 2022 for low-income renters in two Philadelphia zip codes, with plans to expand citywide.
“I admit that when I started in 2005, I was skeptical that a civil right to counsel for tenants could ever be achieved,” Carr said. “Along the way, I was often frustrated by the slow pace of change. I owe a lot of colleagues in the room for keeping me hanging in there. I remind my students that change does happen even if it happens in incremental steps and takes time and compromise.One of the advantages of being older is with time passing, you see the arc of the moral universe really does bend toward justice.”
“The Task Force represents an ongoing commitment to creativity and a level of collaboration that has been successful so far and we hope in the future to achieve even greater levels of success,” Sullivan added.
The winner of the Ginsburg competition was Jennifer DeLongis, a third-year law student at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law, for her submission, “Corona-Violence: A Proposed Provision for a Re-Authorization of the Violence Against Women Act in Response to the Challenges of COVID-19 to Improve Survivors’ Access to Justice.”
