Family Court Under One Roof Convenient Modern Setting Reunites FJD Divisions by Jeff Lyons
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Vol. 77, No. 3 Philadelphia Bar Association Quarterly Magazine Fall 2014 Family Court Under One Roof Convenient Modern Setting Reunites FJD Divisions BY JEff LYONS 10 Questions Evidence for Mark A. Aronchick on Ohlbaum BY DANIEL J. SIEGEL BY MARK C. FRANEK THE PHILADELPHIA L AW Y ER CONTENTS Vol. 77, No. 3 Philadelphia Bar Association Quarterly Magazine Fall 2014 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 12 Annals of Justice – “Keegy” and the 4 From the Editor BY M. KELLY TILLERY Magic Bullet Mysterious figure keeps watch over a young attorney 6 Briefs BY STEVE LACHEEN 7 In Memoriam 16 Poverty a Staple in Appalachian Coal Country 9 Civil Litigation Residents of West Virginia community fighting to survive BY DENNIS R. SUPLEE BY MICHAEL J. CARROLL Playing Poker and Trying Cases: Getting Better? 18 10 Questions for Mark A. Aronchick 42 Technology The past Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association was BY DANIEL J. SIEGEL a leader in the fight to have Pennsylvania’s same-sex marriage Social Media Changes the Way Lawyers Must Practice ban overturned BY DANIEL J. SIEGEL 46 Book Review BY M. KELLY TILLERY 24 Family Court Under One Roof “Hard Choices” by Hillary Rodham Clinton The Juvenile and Domestic Relations division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas are together again in a 48 That Was Then - 1984 brand-new facility 1984 Bench-Bar & Annual Conference BY JEFF LYONS 29 Where Have You Been Stuyvesant Van Veen? Frescoes from the Works Progress Administration era adorn a city courthouse BY RICHARD G. FREEMAN 32 International Defense Center City lawyer represents client charged in Cambodian genocide case BY RICHARD G. FREEMAN 34 Evidence on Ohlbaum Beloved Temple Law professor is fondly remembered by those he inspired BY MARK C. FRANEK 40 Lawyers, Golf Pros and Statisticians Nine times out of 10, when someone says something happens “nine times out of 10,” it doesn’t happen that often BY WILLIAM J. MAFFUCI 29 2 the philadelphia lawyer Fall 2014 FROM THE EDITOR Get Off Livingston Avenue BY M. Kelly Tillery rom the time I could consciously reason, my Lawyer.” Opportunities that millions of other of my era did father, a Louisiana country lawyer in the mold of not have solely because they were different, most because they Atticus Finch, curiously counselled me to “get off were of a different race, the race of the millions of Americans F Livingston Avenue.” We lived on that “Avenue,” enslaved for 256 years and subjected to Jim Crow and worse for in reality, an unadorned suburban development street, another 100. Those that believe that the civil rights laws of the grandiloquently named after Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813), 1960s, Affirmative Action and an African-American president first U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Jefferson’s minister have created a level playing field of equality of opportunity, to France who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, of which much less of actual equality are, at best, ill-informed. this eponymous roadway is a part – a fact no one who lived Two recent books read will change forever the way you there knew then or probably knows now. I looked it up in our view race in this country: “Slavery by Another Name – “World Book Encyclopedia” (pre- the Re-Enslavement of Black Google) when I was 12 and “got off Americans from the Civil War Livingston Avenue” five years later. to World War II,” by Douglas A. I now sit high above one of the Blackmon (Anchor Books, 2009 – five squares of William Penn’s Pulitzer Prize Winner) and “When Greene Towne in a corner office at Affirmative Action Was White: An the storied mahogany partners’ desk Untold History of Racial Equality of Sen. George Wharton Pepper in Twentieth-Century America,” by (1867-1961), founder and scion Ira Katznelson (W.W. Norton & Co., of the 124-year-old Philadelphia 2006). Though freed from actual law firm at which I am now a slavery on Dec. 6, 1865 by the 13th partner. Exactly 1,220 miles “off Amendment, African-Americans of Livingston Avenue.” Although endured disenfranchisement, the my father often muses that he never KKK, Jim Crow, legislative and meant for me to get that far off, he judicial indifference and abuse, knows not that the Philadelphia Bar and perhaps most importantly, from of 2014 is actually light years and 1932-1965, an almost absolute eons away from the world in which exclusion from the government I was born and bred. largesse of The New Deal, The Fair I left the Deep South, not only Deal and The New Frontier. because of the adventures my My father came back from World parental prodding promised, but also War II and rose from poverty to the because it was, as H.L. Mencken so great white middle class, going to appropriately denominated, “The college and law school and buying Sahara of the Bozart” (1920) and, his first home courtesy of the G.I. because of the pervasive stench of Bill of Rights. Although 1 million racism. In 1978, I spent half the African-Americans served in summer working for a prominent, WWII, few received any of the horn large New Orleans law firm to of plenty that was the G.I. Bill. determine whether I should to Though a Caucasian male, I would return the prodigal son to take advantage of my roots, family not be where I am without Affirmative Action, which afforded resources and connections. At a summer clerk luncheon, a firm my parents, but also a more direct version. I was admitted to senior partner answered that question for me when he told a Swarthmore College, one of the most exclusive colleges in the “joke” utilizing the “N-word” and all but a few laughed heartily. nation, not because of my brilliance or stellar academic record, I was sickened and told my father that night that I would never but primarily because I was from the backwaters of Louisiana practice law in Louisiana or return to Livingston Avenue. and seemed to have promise. The G.I. Bill and fortuity of birth I am eternally grateful to my parents and others for giving and geographic diversity created my window of opportunity. this barefooted boy from the bayou so many extraordinary I often tell young men and women considering our profession, opportunities that enabled me to become a “Philadelphia including my own children, that there are too many lawyers in 4 the philadelphia lawyer Fall 2014 this country (the most per capita of any have not even come close to realizing nation), but there are still not enough the Jeffersonian goal of a government good ones. securing certain unalienable rights, In the June 2014 issue of “The including life, liberty and the pursuit of American Lawyer,” the article “What’s happiness to all men who are created The Wrong With This Picture?” chronicles equal. We have much to do. the lack of diversity in large law firms It is my hope that in my role as Editor- Philadelphia and is filled with startling and disturbing in-Chief of this magazine, I shall, in statistics showing that our profession some small way be able to enhance and Lawyer has not changed as much as we may encourage opportunities for others of have thought or hoped. Ferguson, Mo., different races, cultures, backgrounds, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF is not the only evidence of the persistent faiths, sexes, sexual orientation and M. Kelly Tillery and festering sore of racial prejudice and origin, in their own Jeffersonian “pursuit Editorial Board inequality in our society. of happiness.” And, if that includes Niki T. Ingram I treasure and trumpet diversity, becoming a Philadelphia Lawyer, so Jennifer J. Snyder not primarily as reparation for past much the better. Steven R. Sher injustices and inequality, though a noble David I. Grunfeld M. Kelly Tillery ([email protected]), Steve LaCheen goal in and of itself, but rather as an Harold K. Cohen a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP, is incredible vehicle to achieve the best John C. Gregory results for us in our practices, our firms, Editor-in-Chief of The Philadelphia Lawyer. Richard G. Freeman our communities and our world. We April M. Byrd Emmanuel O. Iheukwumere Michael J. Carroll James Backstrom Peter F. Vaira Deborah Weinstein Daniel J. Siegel Justine Gudenas May Mon Post Editor Emeritus Herman C. Fala Senior Managing Editor Jeff Lyons Design Wesley Terry Philadelphia Bar Association CHANCELLOR William P. Fedullo Chancellor-Elect Albert S. Dandridge III Vice Chancellor Gaetan J. Alfano Secretary Jaqueline G. Segal Assistant Secretary Judge A. Michael Snyder (ret.) Treasurer Wesley R. Payne, IV Assistant Treasurer The Philadelphia Lawyer (USPS #025-241), printed with soy inks on recycled paper, is published quarterly in March, June, Mary F. Platt September and December by the Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St., 11th floor, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107-2955. Executive Director Telephone: (215) 238-6300. E-mail: [email protected]. Subscription cost for members is $5 which is included in annual dues, and for nonmembers is $45 yearly. The opinions stated herein are not necessarily those of the Philadelphia Mark A. Tarasiewicz Bar Association. All manuscripts submitted will be carefully reviewed for possible publication. The editors reserve the right to edit all material for style and length. Advertising rates and information are available from Don Chalphin, Sales Director, ALM, 1617 JFK Boulevard, Suite 1750, Philadelphia, PA 19103, (215) 557-2359. Periodicals postage at Philadelphia and additional locations. POSTMASTER: please send changes to The Philadelphia Lawyer, c/o Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St., 11th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2955 the philadelphia lawyer Fall 2014 5 BINVESTING r■ HIRING i■ JOB efGROWTH ■ IN MEMORIAMs BriBri efef ss Survey: Firms See Changes, Yet Not Investing in Future here is broad consensus among law firm leaders on T the changing nature of the U.S.