Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Marc J. Zucker released the following statement remembering longtime member, community leader and Temple University Acting President JoAnne A. Epps.
“The Philadelphia Bar Association is profoundly shocked and saddened at the sudden loss of Acting President Epps, a beloved member of our Association,” Zucker said. “From a professional and personal point of view, this is a terrible loss.”
A member of the Association since 1987, Epps was the recipient of two of the organization’s most prestigious awards: She is the 2009 recipient of the Sandra Day O’Connor Award, which recognizes a female attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women both professionally and in the community. In 2014, she received the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Award, which recognizes an individual attorney, jurist, law firm, corporate legal department or other organization, that has made substantial and lasting contributions to the Association's goal of promoting full and equal participation and inclusion in Philadelphia's legal community. Epps delivered the Association’s Judge A. Leon Higginbotham lecture in 2023 and in 2009. She was a regular speaker and moderator at Association events and continuing legal education programs, and a member of the Women in the Profession Committee.
“JoAnne A. Epps was a pillar of our community: She was a gracious and inspiring leader, a valued mentor, and a treasured friend and colleague to all. She was unwavering in her support of our Association, and we were devastated to hear of her death,” Zucker said. “Through her work as a professor and former Dean of Temple law school, President Epps had a crucial role in nurturing the next generation of leaders in our community, a role she spoke about during a 2021 Association event. She said she told students that becoming an attorney gave them ‘a license to have a voice in the world.’
“In 2009, President Epps challenged us to be ‘protagonists for justice,’ charting our own course in a quest to further the public interest,” Zucker said. “I was particularly moved by her statement, ‘If we don’t stand for something, we live for nothing,’ a credo that is worth remembering as we strive to honor her legacy.
“In July, President Epps was the featured speaker at an Association event titled, ‘Celebrating Inspirational Trailblazers.’ When asked what the term ‘trailblazer’ meant to her, she said that the term brought to mind not famous or well-known people, but those who ‘charted a course that others could follow.’ To her students and all who knew and loved her, Epps was one of those trailblazers. She will be greatly missed.”
