The Bernard G. Segal Papers

Biographical Note

Born in New York City in 1907, Bernard (Bernie) G. Segal grew up in Allentown, PA and Philadelphia. In 1924 he graduated from Philadelphia's Central High School where he was a whirlwind of activity. He served as editor of three student publications, captain of the debate team and president of the student body, while maintaining the highest grade-point average in the class.

Segal earned his undergraduate degree from the Wharton School in 1928 and taught political science there while earning his law degree from Penn in 1931. During his college days he served as president of the Student's Association, the student government of the time, and as coach of the Debate Council. In Law School he was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He was elected a life trustee of the University in 1954, a position that he held until 1977. He was a member of the SAS and the Law School Boards of Overseers. Among his gifts to the University are the Segal Moot Court Room and the Bernard G. Segal endowed professorship for deans of the Law School.

For the next four years, Segal taught finance and law at Wharton and the Law School. In 1932, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, William A. Schnader, asked the Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Herbert F. Goodrich, to recommend "a young lawyer who can write English," noting that "if he knew a little law, that would do no harm." Goodrich recommended Bernie Segal. At the age of 24, Bernie became the youngest Deputy Attorney General in Pennsylvania's history. In that post, he drafted important legislation, including the Pennsylvania Banking Code. When Attorney General Schnader left office in 1935, he withdrew from his old law firm White, Schnader, Maris and Clapp to form a new firm with partner Francis A. Lewis. The two selected one associate-Bernie Segal, who quickly became a partner. Together they built a firm, Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, that is comprised of nearly 150 lawyers.

Segal was known as a superior lawyer and advocated for civil rights, judicial merit selection, pro bono services by lawyers, fair compensation for judges, and improvement of the administration of justice. He was involved in nearly 50 cases before the United States Supreme Court. Segal worked with four Presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

Among his many professional accomplishments was his success in establishing with President Eisenhower the enduring principle that candidates for federal judgeships should be evaluated by their legal peers for competence and judicial temperament. Under President Kennedy, he helped organize private lawyers to help in the struggle for civil rights as co-chairman of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Lyndon Johnson appointed him to head a committee that established legal services for the poor.

Service to the bar was a vital part of Segal's professional life. In 1952 he became the first Jewish lawyer to be elected Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, the oldest Bar Association in the United States. In 1968 he was elected the first Jewish President of the American Bar Association. In 1976 he received the ABA's prestigious Gold Medal. Segal served as President of the American Bar Association from 1969-1970.

Among countless other professional activities, he served as President of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Chairman of the Board of the American Judicature Society. In 1975 Segal received the award as the "World's Greatest Lawyer" at the seventh World Law Conference in Washington, D.C. The award is presented by the World Peace Through Law Center, of which Segal had been a founding member in 1963. He was also awarded the National Civil Rights Award by the Attorney General of the United States, the first Lifetime Achievement Award of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Human Relations Award by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the Judge William H. Hastie Award of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Segal was a life trustee of Hebrew University, where the law library is named after him. He received honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Villanova University, Franklin and Marshall College, The Dropsie University, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Vermont Law School, Georgetown University, Suffolk University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Segal died in June 1997 from complications due to cancer.

Scope and Content

The Bernard G. Segal Papers document all of Segal's activities outside of his work as a lawyer at Schnader, Harrison, Segal and Lewis. This includes his Bar Association and other numerous professional activities, his governmental appointments, and his civic, charitable and communal work. The papers also document his relationship with the University of Pennsylvania.

Provenance

In October 1999, Geraldine R. Segal made a gift of her husband's papers and scrapbooks to the Biddle Law Library. The papers had been organized and maintained at Schnader, Harrison, Segal and Lewis, by Segal's secretary Jane Traphoner, as personal (non-firm related) files. The scrapbooks were created and maintained by Geraldine R. Segal to preserve mementos from Segal's life and career.