Professional Excellence 2019

Welcome to the 2019 Professional Excellence Awards supplement. This year we honored three notable attorneys, five Lifetime Achievement winners, 11 Distinguished Leaders, six Law Firm Mentors, four Unsung Heroes, five Power Players and 25 Lawyers on the Fast Track.

Attorney of the Year finalists:

Mark Aronchick, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller: Aronchick played pivotal roles in—and, most importantly, won—two of the biggest cases in Pennsylvania in 2018. On behalf of the city of Philadelphia, Aronchick successfully defended the controversial sweetened beverage tax. And, on behalf of Gov. Tom Wolf and members of the Pennsylvania Department of State and across four separate lawsuits, Aronchick successfully opposed attempts to block or postpone the institution of new electoral maps ahead of the May 2018 primary elections and November 2018 general elections.

Virginia Gibson, Hogan Lovells: While serving as Hogan Lovells' Philadelphia managing partner and U.S. head of the firm's investigations practice, Gibson led a team that successfully convinced a federal judge to enjoin the U.S. Department of Justice from withholding grant funding because of Philadelphia's status as a “sanctuary city.” The case was closely watched across the country and the district court's ruling was ultimately upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit earlier this year.

Gary Lynch, Carlson Lynch: In a landmark cybersecurity and data privacy case, Lynch successfully argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that companies have a common-law duty to protect their electronically stored employee data. The high court's ruling reversed two controversial lower court rulings that had tossed out a lawsuit against UPMC over a data breach that exposed the personal information of tens of thousands of current and former employees. Earlier in 2018, Lynch was appointed co-lead counsel of national multidistrict litigation brought by over 70 financial institutions against Equifax, related to the company's 2017 data breach.

Distinguished Leaders

Lifetime Achievement

Law Firm Mentors

Power Players

Unsung Heroes

Lawyers on the Fast Track Judging Panelists