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The Monthly Newspaper of the Philadelphia Bar Association
Vol. 47, No. 1
January 2018
Strategic Member Development
to be Chancellor's Focus in 2018
By Thomas E. Rogers
A STAUNCH ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION,
Mary F. Platt, a litigator at Fineman Krekstein & Harris P.C.,
ascended as the Philadelphia Bar Association's 91st Chancellor
at the Annual Meeting Luncheon at Hyatt at The Bellevue on
Dec. 5 on a platform of membership growth based on engage-
ment and value and a strategic plan that will keep the Associa-
tion focused on its core values and goals over time.
As the first woman equity partner at Montgomery
McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP Platt is a champion for
women in the law. I was fortunate to be hired by Montgomery
McCracken because the women lawyers there formed a women's
lawyers group soon after I started working. Our group per-
suaded the Management Committee to adopt a maternity leave
policy, and helped women lawyers become partners and develop
business, she said. I joined the [Association's] Women in the
Profession Committee when I was a young partner because it
helped me network with women lawyers outside my firm. They
became my good friends, and worked with me on programs to
help women lawyers advance in our profession.
Platt talked about the role of the legal community in improv-
ing the justice system. In our country, lawyers and judges are
the system of justice. So in addition to doing our jobs, we have
an obligation to work toward improving our laws and ensuring
equal access to justice for all. I became involved in our Associa-
tion because it gave me opportunities to fulfill this obligation,
she said. For this reason, it is important that the Philadelphia Bar
Association stands up for the core values that we share as attor-
neys-namely, respect for the rule of law and the judiciary, separa-
tion of powers, constitutional rights, access to justice, the indepen-
dence of the judiciary, diversity and inclusion, and civil rights.
However, she discussed the obstacles that face bar associations
today. Like all bar associations, we face financial challenges,
because lawyers are not joining the Association in the same
numbers as they did earlier in my career, Platt said. My goal next
year will be to encourage everyone in our legal community to be
members of our Association because of all we do to improve our
profession, increase access to justice, and defend the core values
Chancellor Mary F. Platt delivers her inaugural address at the
Annual Meeting Luncheon at Hyatt at The Bellevue on Dec. 5.
that protect our democracy.
Also at the Annual Meeting Luncheon, President Judge Marsha
H. Neifield of the Philadelphia Municipal Court was presented
with the Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Distinguished Jurist Award,
and the PNC Achievement Award was presented to both Alfonso
Madrid, of the Law Office of Alfonso Madrid, and Bennett G.
Picker, senior counsel at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP
and former Chancellor. In addition, the Association honored Lizzy
Wingfield, the winner of the 2017 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Pursuit of Justice Legal Writing Competition.
President Judge Neifield has worked to empower victims while
holding first-time misdemeanors offenders accountable and pro-
continued on page 22
Board
Supports
Diversity in
Judiciary
U.S. Attorney
POO L
THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS UNANI-
mously adopted a resolution on Dec.
12, 2017 urging President Trump to
nominate, and the U.S. Senate to con-
firm, highly qualified, diverse individu-
als to serve as judges and justices in the
federal courts and as U.S. attorneys so
continued on page 2
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