| BOARD OF DIRECTORS & ADVISORY BOARD |
Advisory Board BOARD OF DIRECTORS |
| The Law Center is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of a diverse array of key representatives of community organizations and citizen action groups, as well as leaders from Philadelphia's top law firms. The Board consists of several standing committees including the executive, audit/finance, personnel and operations, litigation review, fundraising and board governance/nominations. Its purpose is to provide management support and fiscal oversight to the Law Center staff. The Law Center's programming is reviewed by the Board to ensure that it is consistent with the organizational mission and meets the needs of its constituents. Proposed cases are reviewed by a committee of the Board to ensure that they serve the public interest, promote active client involvement and that the organization has sufficient resources to support them. |
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Roosevelt Hairston, Jr., Chair Tarleton David Williams, Jr., Vice-Chair Patrick Henry LLP Aliza R. Karetnick, Secretary Melissa Wojtylak, Treasurer | ||
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Danielle Banks Richard L. Bazelon Anna M. Bryan Nicholas E. Chimicles William H. Ewing Joseph B.G. Fay Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP Brian T. Feeney Fox Rothschild LLP H. Robert Fiebach Scott Bennett Freemann Reaching Agreement ADR LLC George G. Gordon Stacy L. Hawkins Rutgers School of Law - Camden Marilyn Heffley Donald K. Joseph Marciene Mattleman Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin
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H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Derek Redcross, CPA Eric J. Rothschild Paul H. Saint-Antoine David Smith Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP Shelly D. Yanoff Ex Officio:
DaQuana L. Carter Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia
Scott F. Cooper, Chancellor Philadelphia Bar Association
Abbie DuFrayne, Chair Young Lawyers’ Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association
Rudolph Garcia, Chancellor-Elect Philadelphia Bar Association
Ellen T. Greenlee Defender Association of Philadelphia
Grace Manno Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania
Carlos Montoya Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania
John Savoth, Vice Chancellor
Philadelphia Bar Association
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Danielle Banks is a partner in Stradley Ronon Stevens and Young LLP's Litigation
Practice Group. Ms. Banks represents companies and individuals in employment
law matters, including claims brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act,
the Family Medical Leave Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
Furthermore, she represents clients in other complex litigation matters,
including class actions, commercial lending disputes and contract disputes. Ms.
Banks has tried cases in federal and state courts and participated in oral
arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the
Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Ms. Banks graduated from Temple University
Beasley School of Law in 1993. (Elected to the board in June 2007)
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Brian T. Feeney, a shareholder in the Litigation Department of Greenberg
Traurig's Philadelphia office, has over 11 years of experience in all aspects of
civil litigation. His experience includes representing clients in the litigation
of diverse commercial and business disputes, class actions, consumer fraud
disputes, real estate disputes and contract disputes. Prior to joining
Greenberg Traurig, Mr. Feeney was a Litigation Associate at Morgan, Lewis &
Bockius LLP. Brian was a United States Naval Officer from 1985 to 1991, making
two deployments to the western Pacific before serving as an operations briefer
to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy's senior most officer. In 1994, Brian
received his J.D., magna cum laude, from The Catholic University of America
Columbus School of Law. Following graduation from law school, Brian served as
law clerk to the Honorable J. Curtis Joyner of the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. (Elected to the board in June
2007)
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Howard R. Flaxman is a partner in Fox Rothschild LLP’s Philadelphia office. His practice is focused on labor and employment law, with emphasis on the service, health care, and hospitality industries, as well as educational institutions and public sector clients. Howard is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and a former co-chair of the Labor and Employment Law Department. He served as chief labor consultant to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in its labor relations issues from 1995 to 2003, and has held a number of leadership positions in Easttown Township including Township Supervisor and Chair, Board President and Trustee of the Public Library, and School Director and President of Tredyffrin/Easttown School District. Howard is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Binghamton University. (Elected to the board in February 2009)
Ellen S. Friedell, a founder and principal of Reaching Agreement ADR LLC, a dispute resolution firm, is an attorney with extensive experience in litigation and litigation management. She was previously Associate General Counsel for Rohm and Haas Company, an international chemical company headquartered in Philadelphia, where she had wide-ranging responsibilities focusing on complex litigation in many areas including environmental,
toxic tort, insurance coverage, antitrust, asbestos, employment, products liability and personal injury. She also served as a trial lawyer for the United States Civil Aeronautics Board and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ms. Friedell is on the Board of Trustees of the Settlement Music School and received the School’s Founders Award for outstanding volunteer service in 2009. She serves as a Judge Pro Tempore assisting the court and the parties in resolving disputes pending in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and also represents individuals pro bono under the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program. She received a J.D. from the Washington College of Law of American University in 1973, where she was an Associate Editor of the Law Review. (Elected to the board in June 2010)
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George G. Gordon is a partner and co-chair of the antitrust/competition group at
Dechert LLP. He is also a member of the commercial litigation group. Mr. Gordon
has been consistently recognized as a leading lawyer for antitrust in Chambers
USA. The National Law Journal named Mr. Gordon one of its 2005 "40 Under 40," a
group of the country's 40 leading young lawyers, chosen for their achievements
and contributions to the legal profession. He is also listed in The Best Lawyers
in America (2006). Antitrust litigation, counseling, and government
investigations are the primary focuses of Mr. Gordon's practice. In addition to
class action matters, Mr. Gordon's general antitrust litigation experience
includes significant antitrust actions involving claims of monopolization,
unlawful price discrimination, unlawful group boycotts, predatory pricing, and
monopoly leveraging. Mr. Gordon is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania
Law School. (Elected to the board in June 2007)
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Stacy L. Hawkins, Esq. is an independent diversity consultant working with law firms, corporations, professional associations, educational institutions and other organizations to provide comprehensive diversity management and training services. She is also a frequent speaker and writer for various publications on the topic of diversity, and in particular its intersection with the law. Previously she served as Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll, LLP's first Director of Diversity, a position that entailed oversight of the firm's diversity strategy, including implementing and expanding programs such as the Minority Attorney Retreat, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. She also currently serves on the Board of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group as well as on the diversity advisory board for the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. Ms. Hawkins is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Georgetown University Law Center. (Elected to the board in January 2008)
Sharon F. McKee is a shareholder at Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin in the litigation and education practice groups. Ms. McKee graduated from the New York University School of Law in 1996 and clerked for the Honorable Richard L. Nygaard, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Prior to law school, she advocated for the welfare rights of the elderly for three years and translated the Russian language for media companies and publishers. In 2005, Ms. McKee was named a Pennsylvania Rising Star in litigation based on a Law & Politics poll of lawyers and judges. She was also recognized as a “Woman on the Verge” by the Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Weekly in 2006. (Elected to the board in April 2009)
Derek Redcross, CPA is partner and founder of Redcross Associates, an accounting
firm in West Chester, PA, that serves over 400 clients and employs 4
accountants. Additionally he currently serves as National Director of
Cenotcor's Hospital Division which produces $900 million in sales annually for
Johnson and Johnson. While founding and building Redcross Associates, Mr.
Redcross concurrently held a series of leadership positions with major
pharmaceutical companies; most recently he served as Director of Government
Economics at Amgen, in California, where he was responsible for developing the
company's Medicaid segment, and also held positions at Bristol-Meyers Squibb,
and DuPont. (Elected to the board in June 2007)
Marc A. Topaz, a partner of the firm Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP, oversees the firm’s derivative, transactional and case development departments. In this regard, Mr. Topaz has been heavily involved in all of the firm’s cases related to the subprime mortgage crisis, including cases seeking recovery on behalf of shareholders in companies affected by the subprime crisis, as well as cases seeking recovery for 401K plan participants that have suffered losses in their retirement plans. Mr. Topaz has also played an instrumental role in the firm’s option backdating litigation. These cases, which are pled mainly as derivative claims or as securities law violations, have served as an important vehicle both for re-pricing erroneously issued options and providing for meaningful corporate governance changes. In his capacity as the firm’s department leader of case initiation and development, Mr. Topaz has been involved in many of the firm’s most prominent cases, and virtually all of the 80 options backdating cases in which the firm is serving as Lead or Co-Lead Counsel. Mr. Topaz received his law degree from Temple University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Temple Law Review and a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. He also received his Master of Law (L.L.M.) in taxation from the New York University School of Law, where he served as an editor of the New York University Tax Law Review. (Elected to the board in September 2009)
Melissa A. Wojtylak is Of Counsel in Reed Smith's Philadelphia office, where she represents and counsels clients in commercial, financial services and products liability matters. Since joining Reed Smith in 2005, she has had primary responsibility for handling complex cases, and has served on multi-attorney trial teams in state and federal courts around the country. In March 2005, she was one of a team of attorneys who obtained a defense verdict on behalf of a pharmaceutical company in a product liability case in which the company's drug was alleged to have caused heart valve damage. A graduate of Rutgers University and Villanova University School of Law, Ms. Wojtylak was named a "Rising Star" by Law and Politics' Super Lawyers in both 2005 and 2006. (Elected to the board in January 2008)
ADVISORY BOARD
The Law Center’s Advisory Board is comprised of distinguished citizens who have agreed to lend their prominence to the Law Center, provide advice and guidance on special projects and and to identify the Law Center as one of their personal and/or professional priorities in charitable giving and support. We are proud and honored to have the following individuals serve in this capacity:
Mark Aronchick, Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin
Barbara Binis, Reed Smith LLP
Renee Chenault-Fattah, NBC 10
Dean JoAnne Epps, Temple University Beasley School of Law
Richard Z. Freemann, Freemann Law Offices
Honorable James T. Giles, Pepper Hamilton LLP
Clifford E. Haines, Haines & Associates
Ernest E. Jones, Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation
Michael L. Lehr, Greenberg Traurig LLP
Honorable Timothy K. Lewis, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP
Arthur E. Newbold, IV, Dechert LLP
Albert P. Parker, II, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
Helen P. Pudlin, PNC Bank
Michael H. Reed, Pepper Hamilton LLP
Sister Mary Scullian, Project H.O.M.E.
Ralph Smith, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Charles F. Thomson, Thomson Communications
