New and events of the Philadelphia Bar Asso.
Issue link: https://thephiladelphialawyer.epubxp.com/i/574228
Pennsylvania to Carrie Burnham Kilgore. So, you go back that far to Pennsylvania really bucking the federal system. Fast forward then, women in the 1970s started to go to law school in a higher percentage. The women who went to law school in the 1970s started out as public defenders, assistant district attorneys, city solicitors, and worked their way up, and now there are many female judges in the court of common pleas, and many then elected to the appellate courts. Currently, we have six candidates running for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Four of them are appellate judges, two of them are trial judges, and of the four appellate judges who are running, three are women. It is likely in the next election, which will be held in November, one, two or three women could be elected to the bench. And in terms of the composition, do you think that has impacted the nature of decisions from the court? No, I don't think so. I think diversity is important because it manifests a more just result, but I don't think it matters whether it's a man or a woman. The Superior Court is moving toward being part of Pennsylvania Courts Electronic Filing (PACfile). Has that changed anything? In my role I have been fortunate to be a beneficiary of all the hard work of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) coordination, and the Superior Court is particularly fortunate, because AOPC instituted the electronic system and started with the Supreme Court and Commonwealth Court. We started electronic filing, that is now online, and our system has been flowing really easily, and we're training everyone. As we get younger judges, not necessarily younger in age but younger in technology, they are adapting to it more readily, and it's becoming really so much easier. You can take your iPad with 45 cases on it, not only the briefs and the records, 22 the philadelphia lawyer Fall 2015 I think diversity is important because it manifests a more just result, but I don't think it matters whether it's a man or a woman.