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Speakers

Partner Andrew E. Faust of Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams was part of a panel presentation at the Lehigh University Special Education Law Symposium.

The session, titled “You Be the Judge: 'Dueling' Attorneys,” presented a fictitious case about a student with ADHD who experienced deteriorating performance during his transition to ninth grade.

Faust focuses his practice on special education, student services and child accounting, and student civil rights.

He represents school districts and intermediate units at every level of the federal and state judicial and administrative systems, lectures to audiences of educators and attorneys, and testifies as an expert witness in court proceedings and before state and federal agencies.

Honored

Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano associate Kevin Harchar was named the inaugural Northeast Pennsylvania Man of the Year by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Eastern Pennsylvania chapter.

The award is given to the candidate who raises the most money over a 10-week campaign to support the organization's efforts to find cures and ensure access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

Together, the eight candidates for Northeast Man and Woman of the Year raised $56,525.

Elected and Appointed

Nine attorneys were elected to Ballard Spahr's partnership, with the new Philadelphia partners as follows:

Robert J. Clark is a litigator who represents Fortune 500 companies and public and private entities in regulatory, administrative and legislative matters.

He counsels clients involved in public and private economic development and infrastructure projects, public procurement and bid protest proceedings, matters involving public integrity laws, and administrative and licensing issues in Pennsylvania.

Clark also advises clients in a variety of industries on public policy and political matters.

Jenny N. Perkins defends banks, credit card companies, retailers and lenders in consumer financial services litigation.

She advises on federal and state consumer protection laws.

Perkins represents financial institutions in arbitrations, individual cases, government regulatory proceedings and multijurisdictional class actions.

She also guides businesses through state attorney general investigations and enforcement actions.

Additions

Steve Harvey Law announced that Michael E. Gehring joined the firm's commercial and complex litigation practice as senior counsel.

Gehring worked at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

He also worked in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office both as an appellate attorney and in the office's post-conviction relief act unit.

Most recently, Gehring was a shareholder at McAndrews Law Offices, where he focused on education law and civil rights at the trial and appellate levels.

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Richard P. Santosusso and Michael J. Rugnetta joined Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby as associates in the medical malpractice group and will be based in the firm's Philadelphia office.

Santosusso joins from a firm where he was an associate handling liability work.

He served as a law clerk to Judge Donna Woelpper of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

Before joining the firm, Rugnetta worked for a Philadelphia firm doing litigation defense work.

Before that, he worked for two years in Harrisburg at the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General in the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Prior to that, he worked in the as a judicial fellow to Judge Angelo J. Foglietta of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

Rugnetta also interned for Judge C. Darnell Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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Susan J. French was added as partner at Fineman Krekstein & Harris.

French, a business lawyer, focuses on insurance coverage issues related to the federal multidistrict, state opioid litigation and the representation of insurers and their insureds in bad faith, personal injury and commercial litigation.

She also serves as an arbitrator for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.