1st-Ever Hispanic Chancellor To Address PA Bar

 PHILADELPHIA  -- Rudolph Garcia, a shareholder at the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, will deliver inaugural remarks as the first-ever Hispanic Chancellor of the 13,000-member Philadelphia Bar Association at the Association's Annual Meeting Luncheon tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 7) at noon in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt at The Bellevue, Broad and Walnut streets.

Garcia will officially become Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association on Jan. 1, 2011.

A graduate of Temple University (B.A., 1974) and the Beasley School of Law at Temple University (J.D., 1977), Garcia began his legal career at a 10-lawyer firm before joining Saul Ewing in 1978. After 27 years at Saul Ewing, he moved with a group of colleagues to Buchanan Ingersoll in 2005.

At the Philadelphia Bar Association, Garcia has served three multi-year terms on the Board of Governors and was a founding co-chair of the State Civil Litigation Section. He also chaired the Federal Courts Committee and serves on the Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention. He was elected Vice Chancellor in 2008 and is now completing a one-year term as Chancellor-Elect.

Garcia has also served in the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates and is an American Bar Foundation Fellow and a member of the ABA Advisory Panel. He also served two terms as Chancellor of the Justinian Society, a legal organization comprised of attorneys, judges and law students of Italian ancestry.

Also taking place at the Annual Meeting Luncheon will be the presentation of the Association's Justice William J. Brennan Jr.Distinguished Jurist Award and the Wells Fargo Fidelity Award. The former will be awarded to U.S. Magistrate Judges L. Felipe Restrepo and Timothy R. Rice for their work presiding over the Supervision to Aid Re-entry Program. The latter will be given toMitchell Bach, a member of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC; Edward Biester III, a partner with Duane Morris LLP;Gregory Mathews of Effective Dispute Resolution Services, LLC; Darryl May, a partner with Ballard Spahr LLP; and Marc Sonnenfeld, a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, for their work in making Philadelphia's Commerce Court a reality.