By Katayun I. Jaffari
On December 10, 2024, 21 days before my term as Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association began on January 1, 2025, I spoke at our Annual Meeting about the importance of our role as lawyers in our society. As I said then, “we are the voices, the advocates, the champions of those who need us – whether they are businesses striving to keep this great capitalist experiment alive or individuals who are struggling with the injustices of the world…. We have a duty as lawyers to stand for democracy and to protect the rule of law – without it, all we have is chaos.”
I never imagined when I stood before the membership of our Association then that just 41 days later, our democracy and the rule of law would not only be challenged, but that our world would be put in chaos.
As proud as I was on that day last December to accept the leadership of the Association, I am even prouder today and grateful for the resilience and never wavering commitment of Philadelphia lawyers. We have has shown up this year with strength and grace to protect the ideals upon which our Association was founded in 1802. As our democracy was put to the test, as underserved communities were in crisis, and as our own profession came under attack, Philadelphia Bar Association members and staff stood up – we responded, provided resources and meet the moment over and over again. For this, I am truly grateful.
While I am not able to name everyone in this short column, I want each leader of the Committees, the Sections and each Section’s committees, as well as the staff of the Association, to know how grateful I am for their service and dedication to the Association and its membership. Your work and commitment will forever be treasured.
We stood up in so many ways this year. We immediately responded to threats to our society as hundreds of members of the Association and our community attended our Meeting the Moment programs. I am grateful to so many who helped bring my vision of convening, collaborating and communicating through the Meeting the Moment series of events to learn about how changes at the federal level were impacting the rule of law, immigration, federal funding, diversity, equity and inclusion, LGBTQ+, disability and education rights. These events were the starting point for new relationships and critical conversations that helped members of the community better serve their clients and navigate often complicated and sweeping policy changes. Meeting the Moment culminated in the Association’s first-ever Town Hall on the Rule of Law held in December as we gathered to learn from and support each other.
We did not hesitate to speak out when judicial or attorney independence was threatened. We signed onto amicus briefs in support of attorney independence, whose related lawsuits were victorious, while at the same time we spoke out publicly through statements, as well as programming in support of judicial independence and the safety of our judges, lawyers and all others within our justice system including clients and victims.
Our Law Day gathering was one of my proudest moments as Chancellor of the Association, looking upon more than 400 Philadelphia lawyers showing up and standing tall as we all reaffirmed the attorney’s oath.
Our Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention had a fourth consecutive year where only candidates rated Highly Recommended or Recommended were elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Our political action committee, the Campaign for Qualified Judges, spent months speaking to groups of voters about the Commission’s process and ratings, as well as critical elections such as those of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht, all three of whom were re-elected to new terms.
Our Association also worked to provide critical educational and training programs to our members, helping them to navigate the latest trends in legal practice. We launched a Center for Innovation in the Practice of Law and held a successful Summit on emerging technologies, as well as hands-on workshops on how legal professionals can effectively and ethically use AI tools in their work.
Our trainings of lawyers continued with our third and largest to date Trial Academy for Young Lawyers, providing an immersive week-long experience to young attorneys with limited courtroom experience, featuring local attorneys and judges as faculty and mock trial participants.
With respect to the sustainability of the Association, a dedicated team worked tirelessly over months with a search firm to find our next executive director upon the retirement of Harvey Hurdle. I was proud to on-board Christie Jones, our new executive director, this fall. In addition, after a year and half of dedicated governance work, our Board of Governors and members approved an amended version of our Association’s bylaws.
All the while, we made sure we took care of ourselves by promoting not only a weekly wellness newsletter, but also our first Wellness Summit, which provided our members with tools and resources to help them take care of themselves, their families and their clients. Moreover, we continued to support diversity, equity and inclusion with our first Diversity Summit that included our traditional Higginbotham lecture and dialogue on how to champion and honor belonging in our profession.
On top of all of these and other extraordinary events, our Association leaders and staff continued to serve our members every day as they always had by holding hundreds of gatherings and CLEs all year, from Bench Bar at the Borgata to the Federal Bench Bar in Philadelphia.
I cannot fathom how we did all of this in one year, but we did – as a team, as Philadelphia lawyers, as those who stand for the rule of law and our democracy.
I remain touched, moved and inspired by the Philadelphia lawyer and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to have played a role in our profession alongside so many incredible people. I remain committed to our profession and to our democracy and to the rule of law. I look forward to our future with our next leader, Ezra Wohlgelernter, with light and hope.
Katayun I. Jaffari is 2025 Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. You can email her at chancellor@philabar.org.
