Shelli Fedullo.

The Philadelphia Bar Association had a busy year under the leadership of outgoing chancellor Rochelle "Shelli" Fedullo.

Along with playing host to a strong roster of Continuing Legal Education programs and providing challenging Chancellor's Forum events for the legal community, the bar association saw a number of long-term projects come to fruition under Fedullo's tenure, including increased efforts to impact judicial elections and helping the city pass legislation aimed at providing legal counsel for low-income tenants facing eviction. And, from handing out the bar's judicial rating information at polling centers to testifying before the Philadelphia City Council, Fedullo, who is set to step down as chancellor at the beginning of 2020, helped guide the bar through all of it.

The Legal sat down with Fedullo to talk about the highlights of the year, how the association finds success in playing "the long game," and why chancellors always need to love what they do.

The following has been edited for length, clarity and readability.

The Legal: This was a big year for the bar association, and I wanted to get your thoughts on what you think were the biggest accomplishments of the year.

Fedullo: For me personally, the most important thing we did this year was our participation in the advocacy for right to counsel for poor people facing eviction. It didn't happen [all] in this year. It's a continuing process. The Civil Gideon Access to Justice task force has been working on various pieces of the concept of civil right to counsel for years, and in it 2018 commissioned the Stout report, which is an economic analysis of the impact, the cost-benefit analysis, of providing counsel for poor people facing eviction in the city. That was a really, really important study. In addition to the moral imperative, making sure that poor people are not living in the streets, there's an economic benefit to the city and that made the case for it. The work they did was recognized by the [American Bar Association]. We won the [Harrison] Tweed Award for the fifth time this year. Wining awards is great and we're very proud of it, but the achievements are what's important. It wasn't just us. We were part of other groups, but we were part of the advocacy for right to counsel. I testified twice before City Council. We worked with [Councilwoman] Helen Gym's office. We're proud of all the members of City Council who voted unanimously for it. But this is a big deal. There are poor people whose names we'll never know who our efforts as an association will help.

We're lawyers. We have to believe that having lawyers is important and levels the playing field. And that's our goal. That is a huge, huge accomplishment and I'm proud of our association for its continuing efforts going back 10 years.

I have to acknowledge my dear friend Sayde Ladov who created the Civil Gideon and Access to Justice task force. The association, you know, we're here for the long game. Something that we start now, sometimes you can't achieve something in a year. I am so proud of our association for being a part of this important advocacy and for helping get this legislation passed. Funding is next of course, but getting the legislation getting passed is a huge, huge, deal.

I'm also proud of our work on pardon reform. We passed several resolutions—and they were well received—to make the application process simpler. Before I became chancellor, I sat down with Carl (Tobey) Oxholm who was a big advocate and leader in his own right. His organization was advocating for pardon reform. Just looking at the application you're thinking, "Wow this is a hard thing to do." I mean, even just filling it out and some of the questions being asked. We were listened to; there were some changes in the application form.

It's important because people make mistakes as kids. You do something stupid when you're a kid, it follows you around forever. You can't get a job. You can't rent an apartment in certain places. It's a big deal.

The other thing I thought we're really proud of and it's really an important public service was the work on the judicial commission and how we got the word out.

We vetted—and when I say vetted, it's a really thorough process—over 45 candidates. Of the six who won the Democratic primary, which you know for practical purposes, is winning the general election, only "recommended" and "highly recommended" won. Ballot positions didn't make the day. Party endorsement didn't necessarily make the day. We did very well.

We had four "highly recommended" candidates and three won, which is a big deal and the one who didn't win said he didn't mount that vigorous of a campaign, yet he won a lot of votes.

On Election Day, I was handing stuff out and people were taking it. People sometimes will walk a circle around the people who are pushing a particular candidate, but people were taking our stuff. I know that was consistent throughout the city. People wanted to see our recommendations.

You're the first chancellor to work with the new admin and in particular new executive director, Harvey Hurdle. I wanted to get your thoughts on how that adjustment was.

Perfect. Perfect. No adjustments. Perfect. Easy. Easy-peasy. We did a great job. Smooth sailing, we had a good year; we really did.

Is there anything you would attribute to this year being so successful and you being able to do such much?

We always do things. I think that if you could look back, we always do programming. Every year is important. Every year is somewhat different. We change chancellors every year, and the idea behind it is to get someone with a different viewpoint, a different vision. But we don't live in year increments. We're here for the long game. Projects and initiates that one chancellor starts continue. The A.C.E. program—Advancing Civics Education—that's Mike Pratt. That's still an important program. My husband, Bill Fedullo, was chancellor in 2014. He started a sponsor a school program, and there are firms that are still involved with those schools. Mark Aronchick, I think he was the inventor of Chancellor's Forums. These things stay, and maybe they come back in different ways.

One thing I was very pleased with too, I started an association-wide, I call it "Mentoring and Professional Development" initiative. We've always had mentoring and we try to coordinate them, and it's going to continue next year. That was under the radar in a way. But you launch it, you make the matches, and they continue with the relationship.

I'm curious if there were any major hurdles that you faced in the past year, or anything you wanted to tackle, but didn't have an opportunity to yet?

I feel good about the year. I love the organization. I love the bar association. I believe it is an important organization. It's a trade organization, which is always an important piece of it. We're looking at issues and monitoring issues to make sure we protect ourselves as a trade organization, but there's another part of it too. There's the getting outside of ourselves part of it.

I had no connection to some of these issues. I'm a defense litigator. These are not issues that are front and center to me, and we have a wonderful public interest community that I learned so much from and I'm so proud of. These are issues that are important to people. I don't know about these issues. I don't know about these people. They're not my clients but they need our help. They're the underserved and the vulnerable. We want justice at the end of the day.

There are so many other people I would never have known who are talented people, who've enriched my life on a personal level and intellectual level as well. I think that's also the value of the bar as well. The face-to-face connections. There's something for everyone.

I came into the role loving the organization as much as I could, and came out of it loving it even more, which is hard to believe;

One thing that wasn't a hurdle—I'm really fortunate because my firm, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, was 100% behind me, and it was so important. This is a full-time job as chancellor and even going into it, you're not sure it's going to be, but it is. It's a full-time job. There are moving parts you have no clue about until you're doing the job. My firm has been so supportive of me. Not just this year, but in past years as I'm leading up to being chancellor.

I really feel tremendous gratitude because that was a hurdle I didn't have. My firm was 100% with me.

I was going to ask about some of the challengers, and how you were able to balance being chancellor with being a litigator.

It's hard, yeah, but again a lot of lawyers have been very patient with me. I'll be very busy starting January with a list of stuff I was putting off, but I have to say my firm was amazing and I am so grateful to my firm for supporting me in this endeavor.

Earlier in the year you said one of your big goals was to reinvigorate and reinforce the value of the organization. Do you think you accomplished that?

I feel I did. People tell me I did.

Well that's a good sign.

It's an intangible, but I feel there's an energy, a positivity. I feel that people I've connected with have told me that, so I'm going to take them at their word. But I feel we've had a really good year, and we have great leaders ahead of us. We're poised for continuing success and I feel good about it.

Is there any advice you have for future chancellors? Anything you learned that you'd like to pass on?

Love the organization. Love the organization. If you love the organization, it's going to show. But I know going forward that's not advice I have to give to the next three chancellors. I know the next three chancellors in line are amazing. Mike Snyder is a dear, dear friend, I adore him. Lauren is amazing. I'm crazy about Lauren McKenna. And Wes Payne is amazing too. I'm crazy about him too. I feel so fortunate, really to know them and to have had the opportunity to work with them. But, really, love the organization. Maybe it sounds pollyannaish or something, but I don't believe that's true. If you choose to lead an organization of this nature, love it. Love it. And if you love the organization, it's going to show in everything you do. Lawyers, we're all smart. You assume intellect is coming to it. I'm assuming intellect is a given, but heart is the other piece of it.