Wilkinson To Deliver Inaugural Address As Incoming Chancellor Of 13,000-member Philadelphia Bar Association Tomorrow (Dec. 4)

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kathleen D. Wilkinson, partner in the law firm of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, will deliver inaugural remarks as the incoming Chancellor of the 13,000-member Philadelphia Bar Association at the Association's Annual Meeting Luncheon tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 4) at 12:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt at The Bellevue, Broad and Walnut Streets.

Wilkinson is only the 6th woman to serve as Chancellor in the 210-year history of the  Philadelphia Bar Association – the oldest association of lawyers in the United States.  Her one-year term as the Association's 86^th Chancellor begins on Jan. 1, 2013.

A graduate of Kean College and Villanova University School of Law, Wilkinson joined Wilson Elser in 1984, where she became one of the early women equity partners in a law firm that employs 800 lawyers around the country.  A litigator with more than 30 years of experience, she defends complex cases involving construction, insurance, professional liability, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

At the Bar Association, Wilkinson has served in numerous leadership roles, including election as a member of the Board of Governors, Assistant Secretary and later Secretary of the Association. She was elected Vice Chancellor in 2010, serving in that position during 2011. She is currently completing a one-year term as Chancellor-Elect.

She serves on numerous boards for public interest legal and civic organizations, and is a founding member of Villanova Law's J. Willard O'Brien American Inn of Court and served as the Inn's first woman president.  In 2008, she received the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Anne X. Alpern Award – the highest award given to a Pennsylvania woman attorney.

Her husband, attorney Thomas G. Wilkinson, currently serves as President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.  While the Wilkinsons did not plan on overlapping terms as leaders of the state's two largest bar associations, they share a common passion for advancing the interests of the legal profession.

Also taking place at the Annual Meeting Luncheon will be the presentation of the Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Distinguished Jurist Award to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, and the presentation of the PNC Achievement Award to Richard C. Glazer, the first elected chair of the Philadelphia Board of Ethics.

SOURCE Philadelphia Bar Association