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Law Alumni Society honors outstanding alumni and former faculty with Annual Alumni Awards

October 17, 2012

Six University of Pennsylvania Law School graduates honored for their career achievements, pro bono work, service to the legal profession and the Law School on October 24, 2012.

On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 the Law School will honor six University of Pennsylvania Law School graduates for their career achievements, pro bono work, service to the legal profession and service to the School. The ceremony will commence at 6:00 p.m. in Penn Law’s Bernard Segal Moot Court Room (Silverman 245A) followed by a reception in the Kabacoff Reading Room.

 

The 2012 Penn Law Alumni Award Honorees are:

  • Justine F. Andronici L’02, Young Alumni Award
  • Nicolas Bratza, James Wilson Award
  • Catherine C. Carr L’79, Louis H. Pollak Public Service Award
  • Ethan D. Fogel L’83, Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award
  • Robert L. Friedman L’67, Distinguished Service Award
  • Robert A. Marchman L’83, Alumni Award of Merit

 

Justine F. Andronici L'02, 2012 Law Alumni Society Young Alumni Award The Young Alumni Award, honoring the professional achievement of an alumnus/a who graduated within the past 10 years, will be presented to Justine F. Andronici L’02.

Andronici is an accomplished attorney who has dedicated her career to working for social justice, equality, and victims’ rights. She attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School as a Sparer Public Interest Law Scholar after beginning her career in social justice work as a grassroots organizer, researcher, and press secretary for the Feminist Majority Foundation. Upon graduation from law school, she was selected as a Georgetown Women, Law and Public Policy Fellow and worked during her fellowship as a reproductive rights policy attorney in Washington, D.C. After her fellowship, Ms. Andronici took a position as a domestic violence attorney for the Maryland Women’s Law Center where she represented victims of domestic and sexual abuse in Baltimore, Maryland in civil protection order matters. Thereafter, she joined the Washington D.C. plaintiff’s employment law firm of Katz, Marshall & Banks LLP where she specialized in sex and race discrimination matters. She now resides in Centre County, Pennsylvania where she serves as the founding Director of the Centre County Women’s Resource Center’s Civil Legal Representation Project, a legal assistance project that provides representation to victims of domestic and sexual abuse in family law and immigration matters.

Throughout her legal career, Ms. Andronici has worked privately on civil cases of importance to the community. In 2011, she was a part of a legal team that filed a challenge to a local school district’s policy of denying health insurance benefits to gay and lesbian domestic partners while providing those same benefits to heterosexual employees, which resulted in a change in that policy. Currently, Ms. Andronici is a part of a legal team that represents multiple victims of sexual abuse by former Penn State University football coach, Jerry Sandusky. 

Ms. Andronici regularly writes and speaks to community groups and students about social justice and victims’ rights issues. She developed and taught a course in Women and the Law at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and is often invited to speak to students about careers in public interest and social justice. Ms. Andronici has appeared as a legal commentator in the national media and is a contributing writer for Ms. Magazine. She has served on numerous non-profit boards, including the National Board of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the National Advisory Board of Ms. Magazine. She earned her B.A. cum laude in 1994 from Colgate University and her J.D. in 2002 cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She is a member of the Bars of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

 

Nicolas Bratza, 2012 Law Alumni Society James Wilson Award The James Wilson Award, honoring service to the legal profession and named for the first law lecturer at Penn and signer of the Declaration of Independence, will be awarded to Sir Nicolas Bratza.

Bratza, the current President of the European Court of Human Rights and the Judge of the Court representing the United Kingdom, is the second person to hold this post as a full-time appointment since Protocol 11 to the European Convention on Human Rights established the Court as a permanent body.

Bratza was appointed Junior Counsel to the Crown at Common Law in 1979 and took silk as Queen’s Counsel in 1988. He acted in 1981 for the UK Government at the European Court of Human Rights against Jeffrey Dudgeon who complained successfully that the law in Northern Ireland, which made homosexual acts between consenting adult males a criminal offense, was a breach of the Convention. In 1993, Bratza was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court and elected a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn.

In the same year, he was appointed as the UK Member of the European Commission of Human Rights, part of the European Convention on Human Rights system of the Council of Europe. In 1998, the Commission was abolished and replaced by a permanent European Court of Human Rights, and Bratza was elected as the Judge of this Court representing the United Kingdom. The eligibility criteria for appointment, however, required that Bratza hold judicial office in his home territory, and for this reason he was appointed a High Court judge. This afforded him the title, The Hon. Mr. Justice Bratza, although at the European Court he is referred to simply as Sir Nicolas Bratza. In the same year, and again in 2001, he was elected as one of the five Section Presidents of the Court. He was elected to a second and final term as a judge of the Court and re-elected as a Section President in 2004, and has been a Vice-President of the Court since 2007. His second term of office on the Court will expire on October 31, 2012. In 2011, he was elected to succeed Jean-Paul Costa as President of the Court.

Bratza is a member of the Advisory Council and former Vice-Chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a member of the Editorial Board of the European Human Rights Law Review. Bratza has served as a member of Penn Law’s faculty and is the current leader of the Penn Law European Society.

 

Catherine C. Carr L'79, 2012 Law Alumni Society Inaugural Louis H. Pollak Public Service Award The inaugural Louis H. Pollak Public Service Award, honoring a career of advancing justice through the service of others, will be presented to Catherine C. Carr L’79.

Carr is the Executive Director of Community Legal Services, Inc., the largest legal aid provider in Philadelphia. Ms. Carr served as a staff attorney at CLS before becoming director, specializing in public benefits litigation, including access to welfare, Social Security, and Medicaid benefits. CLS has received national recognition for its high quality and innovative work, including the American Bar Association’s Hodson Award for Public Service.

Ms. Carr has served on the board of directors and in other leadership positions for many national and local legal services and public interest organizations, and for the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, including a current position as co-chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Civil Gideon Task Force. She has served for many years as a Lecturer and then Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she now teaches “Lawyering in the Public Interest”, and where she is a member of the Public Service Advisory Board and on the Board of Managers of the Law Alumni Society. She has accompanied Penn law student organizations on learning and service trips to El Salvador, the Mexico/Arizona border and Amman, Jordan. She is the recipient of a number of awards, including the 2006 NLADA Denison Ray Award, the 2007 University of Pennsylvania Alumni Award of Merit, and the 2009 Philadelphia Bar Foundation Award. She was recently elected to membership in the American Law Institute.

Ms. Carr received her J.D. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an editor of the Law Review, and her B.A. cum laude from Yale University. She clerked for the Honorable Norma L. Shapiro of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

 

Ethan D. Fogel L'83, 2012 Law Alumni Society Alumni Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award The Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award, honoring an alumnus/a who has embodied the spirit of the Public Service Program through a sustained commitment to pro bono and/or public service throughout a private sector career, will be awarded to Ethan D. Fogel L’83.

Fogel, a partner in Dechert LLP’s Philadelphia office and 1983 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, is the recipient of Penn Law’s 2012 Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award. Mr. Fogel helped establish the innovative and highly successful collaboration between Community Legal Services, Dechert, and Penn Law students that resulted in the Penn Housing Rights Project, for which he is the supervising attorney. That program now includes Philadelphia VIP (Volunteers for the Indigent Program) and several other Philadelphia law firms.

At Dechert, Fogel concentrates on business insolvency, reorganization law, and natural resources law, and serves as chair of the Pro Bono Committee in Dechert’s Philadelphia office. Fogel was also a member of the Landlord Tenant Liaison Committee, established by the Court of Common Pleas to improve the administration of landlord/tenant cases, which was recognized with the 2007 First Judicial District of Pennsylvania Pro Bono Publico Award for its work. With the assistance of the Court of Common Pleas and the Philadelphia Bar Association, that Committee also established the Landlord Tenant Appellate Mediation Program (LTAMP), which tries to resolve cases amicably before their scheduled trial date.

In addition, Fogel is a member of the Board for The Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP), a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that provides free civil legal services to the homeless in Philadelphia. Mr. Fogel, along with a Dechert associate, coordinates monthly HAP legal clinics at St. John’s Hospice and St. Francis Inn, two homeless shelters adopted by Dechert attorneys.

Fogel graduated from Stony Brook University in 1975 and from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Magna cum laude, and Order of the Coif in 1983.

 

Robert L. Friedman L'67, 2012 Law Alumni Society Distinguished Service Award The Distinguished Service Award, honoring service to the Law School, will be awarded to Robert L. Friedman L’67.

Friedman is currently a Senior Advisor of the Blackstone Group. Mr. Friedman began work at Blackstone (his largest client during his tenure at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP) in 1999 when he became a Senior Managing Director. He served as Blackstone’s Chief Legal Officer until late 2010 and retired as a Senior Managing Director in mid-2012 to transition into his current role.

Mr. Friedman graduated from Columbia College in 1964 and from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1967, where he was Managing Editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. Upon graduation from the Law School, he joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, becoming a partner of that firm in 1974. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was a leading member of Simpson Thacher’s mergers and acquisitions practice and served in various key roles as a member of the firm’s senior management.

Mr. Friedman served on the Law School’s Board of Overseers from 1990 to 1996. He has been a member of the Board of Advisors of the Law School’s Institute for Law & Economics since 1999, serving as Chairman of the Board from 2001 through 2007.

He currently serves as a director of Axis Capital Holdings Limited, TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. and YRC Worldwide Inc. He is also a member of the Board of Visitors of Columbia College, a member of the Boards of Directors of United Way of New York City and the Nantucket Land Council, and Chairman of the Boards of both New Alternatives for Children and Chess in the Schools, two charitable organizations serving disadvantaged youth in New York City.

 

Robert A. Marchman L'83, 2012 Law Alumni Society Alumni Award of Merit The Alumni Award of Merit, honoring professional achievement and service to the Law School will be awarded to Robert A. Marchman L’83.

Marchman joined the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in June 2010 as Executive Vice President and Head of the Market Regulation Department’s Legal Group. As head of this group, Marchman prosecutes violations of market rules and federal securities laws such as the recent significant disciplinary actions involving manipulative high-frequency trading activity.

Prior to joining FINRA, Mr. Marchman was responsible for managing the New York Stock Exchange Regulation’s Enforcement Division and Regulatory Risk Group. During his tenure at the NYSE Mr. Marchman directed several high profile and significant securities regulation disciplinary actions including the research analysts’ conflict of interest and specialist trading ahead cases.

Mr. Marchman also served as Chairman of the NYSE Diversity Council from its inception in 1999 until his departure from the NYSE. The Council directed the company’s diversity management effort, a strategic business imperative. In his role as Chairman he played a major role in leading important Exchange initiatives such as recruitment and retention efforts, financial literacy programs, and outreach to communities of color. At FINRA, Mr. Marchman serves as liaison to the CEO for the company’s diversity management initiative.

Prior to joining the NYSE in 1989, Mr. Marchman was a Branch Chief in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C. While at the SEC, Mr. Marchman brought a number of significant disciplinary actions, including the action against Boyd Jefferies in connection with the Ivan Boesky insider trading case.

Mr. Marchman is a magna cum laude graduate of Allegheny College, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and he received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In addition, Mr. Marchman attended Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development. Mr. Marchman’s involvement in civic affairs includes Board membership service on organizations such as Operation HOPE, CCE, PFLAG, University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Community Coalition on Race of South Orange – Maplewood, New Jersey. He has also served as a member of the Maplewood, New Jersey Zoning Board and is a Lector at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in South Orange, NJ.

Mr. Marchman, the first African-American Executive Vice President at the NYSE, has been the recipient of awards for professional accomplishments as well as community and civic service including: Savoy Magazine’s “2012 Top 100 African-Americans in Corporate America”; National Multicultural Institute’s Leading Light Diversity Award; NV Magazine “Wall Street” Achievement Award; Allegheny College Alumni Award (professional accomplishments); Harlem YMCA “African-American Achiever” Award; Junior Achievement Volunteerism Award; The Urban League of Essex County “Dare to Dream” Award; The South Orange Civic Association “Beloved Community Contributor” Award; Wall Street in Black “Industry Pioneer” Award; Operation HOPE Chairman’s Award, and the Youth About Business “Commitment to Excellence” Award.

 

To RSVP to the 2012 Penn Law Alumni Award ceremony and reception, please email Corey Ellen Fulton at cefulton@law.upenn.edu or call 215.898.0672.