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Elected and Appointed

Michael J. Fekete of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads was appointed by New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner to serve a four-year term on the District IV ethics committee.

The ethics committee works with the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics to ensure proper and ethical representation by lawyers in their respective districts.

Fekete is a partner in the firm's litigation department and a member of the real estate practice. He represents individuals, business owners and companies, both publicly and privately owned, in litigation involving breach of contract, breach of warranty, consumer fraud claims, real estate and restrictive covenants.

Events

On Aug. 2 Pope Francis directed that language in the Catechism of the Catholic Church be revised to say that the death penalty is “inadmissable because it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the person.”

Although the Catholic Church has taught that the state may, in principle, use the death penalty where necessary, Pope Francis' decision reflects several years of increasing opposition by the church to the death penalty in practice.

The Eleanor H. McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy's “The Death Penalty and Pope Francis” panel will explore the death penalty today and in light of Pope Francis' change to the Catechism from the perspectives of law, theology and criminology.

The panel is set to start at 4 p.m. on Sept. 18 at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law's Blank Rome LLP Classroom.

The scheduled panelists include Michelle Madden Dempsey, Massimo Faggioli and Jill McCorkel.

Speakers

Kelly Dobbs Bunting, a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig's Philadelphia office, is set to address critical and evolving issues of workplace harassment prevention measures for employers at the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration's 54th annual conference and exposition Sunday.

The national four-day gathering, taking place this year in Pittsburgh, provides HR professionals in health care with tools to stay on the cutting edge amid shifting regulations and policies.

Bunting is scheduled to present, “Updating Your Employment Handbook and Harassment Training to Include the LGBTQ Workforce.”

Bunting co-chairs Greenberg Traurig's labor and employment practice's workforce compliance and regulatory enforcement group.

She litigates federal and state class and collective actions, defending employers nationwide against discrimination, harassment, wage-and-hour violation and whistleblower claims, breach of employment agreements and more.

Her work brings her before federal, state and municipal agencies, from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor to local human relations commissions.

Announcements

Dilworth Paxson attorney Judge Nelson Diaz has written “Not From Here, Not From There/No Soy de Aquí ni de Allá—The Autobiography of Nelson A. Díaz.”

With a foreword by Henry Cisneros, it's a story of Diaz's life and covers a lot of ground, including judicial reform and legal education.

Diaz concentrates his practice in the areas of litigation, dispute resolution, public housing issues and government relations.

He has represented public entities, corporations, hospitals, banks and nonprofit organizations in both state and federal courts.

Diaz served as a judge for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas from 1981 through 1993.

He was the youngest judge elected to the court and the first Latino judge in Pennsylvania history.