Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Rochelle “Shelli” Fedullo 

At a time when the relevance of bar associations has been called into question, newly installed Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Rochelle “Shelli” Fedullo is planning a year designed to reinforce and reinvigorate the organization's value to the legal community for both existing and prospective members.

An attorney since 1982 and a longtime litigator and partner with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Fedullo has been an active member of the Philadelphia Bar Association for decades, having served on the Board of Governors for 10 years, including as chairwoman of the board. She is the organization's 92nd chancellor.

Having had so much experience as a bar association member and leader, Fedullo knows well the benefits of having a network of colleagues to turn to for advice, guidance and encouragement.

As social and professional networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn continue to change the way lawyers—especially young lawyers—meet and confer with each other, Fedullo said she believes bar associations provide a crucial avenue for irreplaceable face-to-face interactions.

“The world's a very different place with technology,” she said. “We can connect through social media and we connect in other ways, but I think that human connection—seeing and talking to people—is really, really important. And that's something the association does. You have opportunities to meet people, opportunities to network, that you would not have otherwise.”

But networking is just one the benefits the Philadelphia Bar Association can offer young lawyers, Fedullo said. Another benefit of membership is mentorship.

Fedullo, who speaks of the invaluable guidance and support she received throughout her career from her own professional mentor, retired Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, is seeking this year to improve on and bolster the association's mentoring and professional development initiative.

Fedullo said she believes the bar association can fill a need in that regard for younger lawyers that law firms often can't.

“I think a lot of firms have mentoring initiatives in place and I applaud them because I think it's really helpful to have somebody to watch your back in a firm,” she said, but added that sometimes young attorneys are reluctant to let their guards down and ask questions of more senior lawyers within their own firms.

“It's kind of like the dynamic where [as a partner] you give associates assignments and instead of asking you they ask each other because they don't want to look stupid in front of you,” she said.

Fedullo recalled meeting recently with a group of younger lawyers through the bar association's mentorship initiative and being struck by the questions they came up with in a situation in which they felt they could be candid.

“It was really interesting to me to see what was of interest to them,” she said. “They would ask me things like—and it was a safe place to ask me because I'm not a partner in their firm—'What does my partner really mean when they ask me this?' or 'How do I make them happy? What are the things I need to do to get ahead?'”

But Fedullo said she also believes bar associations have the power to make an impact in the world beyond just the legal communities they serve.

In an intense national and international debate over the sanctity of the rule of law, Fedullo said she wants the Philadelphia Bar Association to have a voice on the issue.

“As lawyers and as the oldest bar association—and I think the most dynamic and best—in the country, I think we need to speak up,” she said, “because if we don't do it as Philadelphia lawyers, who does it?”

To that end, Fedullo is in the process of assembling a Rule of Law Commission within the organization that will identify potential threats to the rule of law and formulate responses to them.

“The rule of law … sounds like an intellectual concept but it's a concept that impacts our lives every day,” she said. “That's why we became lawyers and we need to protect it every day.”

For Fedullo, the concept of the rule of law has very personal implications. And, though she didn't fully grasp this fact at the time, the desire to protect and uphold the rule of law is quite literally the reason she left her career as a teacher and joined the bar, she said.

“My father was a Holocaust survivor and had numbers on his arm,” she said. “It kind of dawned on me, like, 'What really made you [become a lawyer]?' It's because you realize what happens in the world when the rule of law devolves into horror.”

Fedullo said her father's experience is also part of the reason immigration is an issue of particular importance to her.

“I'm the daughter of a refugee and the ideas of sanctuaries and openness are important,” she said. “That's how our country was built.”

And while Fedullo acknowledged that, at 12,000 strong, the Philadelphia Bar Association's membership represents a broad cross-section of political beliefs, some issues are “so fundamental” that they “transcend politics.” It's on those issues that the organization has a duty to use its collective voice to speak out, she said.

“There are certain things that are [at the] core of being American,” she said, adding, “You can't make everybody happy every time, but certain things are just moral imperatives.”

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