Roberta Pichini Named 2006 Sandra Day O’Connor Winner by Philadelphia Bar Association

Roberta D. Pichini, the Secretary of the Justinian Society, will be honored with the 2006 Sandra Day O’Connor Award at the Philadelphia Bar Association’s October Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon on Monday, October 30 at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue at noon.  The O’Connor Award, established by the Association’s Women in the Profession Committee in 1993, is conferred annually on a woman attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women in both the profession and the community.

“When I consider the stature and contributions of the women who have received this award in the past, I am truly honored to be this year’s award recipient,” said Pichini, who joined the firm of Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernter, Tanner & Weinstock in 2004. “I’m especially proud because of the award’s strong emphasis on the importance of mentoring younger women colleagues.

“Given the enormous pressures and competing demands facing women entering the profession today, it is more important than ever that those of us who have already confronted these challenges make it a priority to help younger women navigate what sometimes seems like a maze of difficult choices and alternatives. Mature women lawyers need to share their experience and offer their support, not only so that we may retain younger women in the practice, but so that our clients and the profession itself can reap the benefits of their talent, creativity and enthusiasm.”

Pichini, who for 20 years has specialized in litigating medical malpractice and product liability cases, was the first woman in Pennsylvania to be invited into the prestigious International Academy of Trail Attorneys, which has a limited membership of 500.  She was elected that organization’s first woman officer in 2003.

A member of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Board of Governors from 1993 to 1996, Pichini chaired the Association’s Women in the Profession Committee in 2002 and 2003. She also serves as a delegate to the House of Representatives for the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor presented the first award in 1993 to U.S. District Court Senior Judge Norma L. Shapiro. The award has since been presented to the late Juanita Kidd Stout, former justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court; Deborah R. Willig, first woman Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association; Professor Marina Angel, of the Temple University Beasley School of Law faculty; Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Dolores K. Sloviter (former Chief Judge); U.S. District Court Judge Anita B. Brody; Leslie Anne Miller, first woman president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association; Lila G. Roomberg of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP; the late Judge Judith J. Jamison; Ellen T. Greenlee, chief defender of the Defender Association of Philadelphia; former Chancellor Audrey C. Talley; U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Marjorie O. Rendell; and former Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Phyllis W. Beck.

Tickets to the luncheon are $50 for Philadelphia Bar Association members and $55 for non-members and are available at www.philadelphiabar.org.