Honored

Laurel Gift, partner at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, received the President's and Directors' Commendation, an award from the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers at its 2019 Joint Annual Conference held in Harrisburg.

Gift was also recently elected as vice president of the western district of PACDL, and she serves as co-chair of PACDL's advocacy committee and as the chairperson of the Allegheny County chapter of PACDL.

Gift chairs Schnader's criminal defense practice group and the internal investigations, ethics and compliance practice group. She concentrates her practice in the area of internal investigations for institutions of higher education, municipalities and private businesses and representing corporate and individual clients in a variety of criminal matters.

Additions

Saxton & Stump announced the establishment of a hospitality group with the addition of seasoned hospitality attorney Anthony J. Foschi.

Foschi works closely with buyers and sellers of hotels, food service organizations, restaurants and public recreation businesses to achieve their business goals. He will serve clients from Saxton & Stump's Harrisburg location.

Foschi represents hotel senior management on a variety of matters related to buying and selling hotels and public recreation businesses, franchising and project development.

Speakers

Attorneys from Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams presented the concluding session of the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Association of Pupil Service Administrators. The conference took place in Leola.

In the full-day session, the Paul Stevens Memorial Legal Seminar, named for one of the founding partners of the law firm, attorneys Mark Cheramie Walz, Sharon W. Montanye, Thomas C. Warner and Jane M. Williams shared information on recent court decisions that affect special education and pupil services legal issues.

Walz specializes in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse and computer crimes cases. He helps districts to reduce liability while working with new technology.

Montanye is an advocate in special education litigation, with experience working in the field of education as an administrator, certified teacher, grant writer and peer reviewer.

Warner represents Pennsylvania school districts in matters of special education and provides in-service training in defensible special education programming and confidentiality/disclosure issues.

Williams provides both proactive and defense representation to school entities. She served as a hearing officer and adviser to school boards in student expulsion matters.

PAPSA is devoted to issues concerning pupil services programs in schools. Members of the organization have supervisory or administrative responsibility in fields such as counseling, health, psychology, home and school visitation, social work, special education, gifted education and student assistance.