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Elected and Appointed

The board and staff of the Education Law Center-PA announced that Reynelle Brown Staley was named ELC's policy director.

In her role as policy director, Staley will be responsible for overseeing local and statewide policy advocacy for the entire ELC team.

With Staley's help, ELC and its partner organizations will continue their push to get the state to adequately and equitably fund its schools.

In the coming months, ELC will also be looking to build on recent victories in limiting out-of-school suspensions of young children and opposing ill-advised proposals to arm school personnel and will continue to push back against efforts to erode established civil rights protections of children and youth in schools.

Staley began her legal career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

She has engaged in litigation and administrative advocacy before numerous state, federal and international bodies, including briefing the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the right of school districts to engage in voluntary desegregation efforts.

Staley was the founding executive director of After-School All-Stars Philadelphia, providing access to out-of-school time programming to under-resourced schools.

She was also deputy director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.

*****

David G. Greene of Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby was invited by the Pennsylvania Bar Association to be a member of the inaugural Pennsylvania workers' compensation bench bar committee.

The committee consists of attorneys and judges across the state brought together to improve the nature of the statewide workers' compensation practice.

At Weber Gallagher, Greene counsels employers, insurance companies and third-party administrators on how to best manage their Pennsylvania workers' compensation claims. He works closely with his clients to provide risk management advice.

Greene also co-authors the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's “Workers' Compensation Practice & Procedure” manual and teaches the “Practice and Procedure” course.

Before being selected to co-author the manual, he moderated the “Tough Problems in Workers' Compensation” course for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute for 15 years.

Additions

Steve R. Bertil joined the Philadelphia-based law firm of Fineman Krekstein & Harris as an attorney in the firm's real estate group.

He concentrates his practice in representing property owners, community groups and associations, small businesses, real-estate investors and burgeoning developers in matters related to zoning and land use, government and regulatory affairs, code violations, commercial litigation and tax assessment appeals, development and real estate transactions.

Before joining the firm, he was in-house counsel to the city of Philadelphia's Division of Housing and Community Development, the Commerce Department and the Mayor's Office of Community Empowerment & Opportunity.

Bertil also served as an assistant city solicitor representing various agencies in zoning, land use and code enforcement, including Licenses & Inspection, Streets Department and the Historical Commission.

He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Announcements

Attention young lawyers!

Send in your questions for a new Q&A advice column for the Young Lawyers page in The Legal. A panel of experts from the law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis will answer a few selected questions in each monthly column, advising young lawyers about their career, professional development, office politics, business development, pro bono work, relationships with mentors and colleagues, and so on.

Email your questions to [email protected].