Even as bar leaders spent much of the past year collaborating with Philadelphia County court officials and law firm administrators on how best to adapt to the changes wrought by the virus, Chancellor-elect Lauren McKenna said she hoped to redouble the association's efforts in the coming year to help identify and respond to the legal community's needs.
"Many of our members, large and small, are struggling in their practices and there are law students and law graduates who are owed our support and assistance," she said during a virtual meeting of the group on Tuesday afternoon.
McKenna, a partner with Fox Rothschild LLP, is set to take the association's reins at the beginning of next year, following in the footsteps of Judge A. Michael Snyder.
Snyder's one-year term quickly became dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the local legal system, with court operations all but screeching to a halt in mid-March before slowly starting to open back up over the course of the summer. The bar association helped set up new processes to allow more proceedings to take place online or with assistance from volunteer pro tem judges.
In addition to working with the local courts, the bar association successfully petitioned to allow attorneys to earn continuing legal education credits for programs offered live online and provided access to mental health counseling as a member benefit.
McKenna said that the bar's work throughout 2020 had proven the strength and resilience of the local legal community.
"At the Philadelphia Bar Association, one thing is certain: 2020 will be remembered as the year we adapted, overcame and fulfilled our mission to the legal profession like never before," she said.
Building on the association's efforts, McKenna said Tuesday that she planned to put together a task force of section leaders to interface with local firms and attorneys, members of the business community, law schools, and the courts to help identify legal needs arising from the pandemic.
"This collaboration will allow us to speak with one voice," she said.
She said that ensuring the success of the local legal community would help to more broadly boost Philadelphia's recovery from the economic shock waves created by the pandemic.
She pointed to a 2013 study commissioned by the bar association that found the local legal industry was responsible for about $5 billion in economic activity in the city, supporting some 31,000 jobs and $3 billion worth of earnings.
"The legal industry is central to rebuilding an economy in Philadelphia that has been devastated by the pandemic," she said.
--Editing by Daniel King.
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