Photo: Stephen Coburn

Additions

MacElree Harvey added J. Christopher Erb as a partner in the firm's business department.

Erb brings with him nearly 25 years of experience practicing law, advising small and midsize international and domestic business clients on all aspects of international and domestic commercial law.

Prior to joining MacElree Harvey, Erb was a managing shareholder of The Erb Law Firm, focusing on European (primarily German) internet, e-commerce and information technology companies.

He taught courses in business immigration and advising the global corporation at Temple University.

Prior to founding The Erb Law Firm, Erb practiced at Reed Smith and Dechert.

A member of the International Associations of Privacy Professionals, the American Bar Association international section, Warwick Legal Network and the German American Chamber of Commerce of Philadelphia, where he is on the board of directors and the executive committee, Erb remains active in community organizations.

He earned his Juris Doctor from Temple University Beasley School of Law.

Honored

The Public Interest Law Center's of counsel Michael Churchill is set to be honored for decades of work advancing civil rights at the Philadelphia Martin Luther King Jr. Association for

Nonviolence's annual awards luncheon, receiving the Drum Major for Civil Rights Award.

The Drum Major awards recognize people and organizations whose deeds exemplify the vision fostered by King.

The luncheon is slated to be held at noon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the Philadelphia 201 Hotel at 17th and Race Street in Philadelphia, following a ceremonial ringing of the Liberty Bell in memory of King.

Churchill began his activism in civil rights matters when he participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964.

His work covers a range of civil rights issues, including attempting to empower African American communities in connection with the Model Cities program, attacking police misconduct in the Rizzo era and reducing the use of deadly force, increasing the numbers of African American and Latino police officers in Philadelphia by ending the use of discriminatory tests, and improving income in the black community through successful employment discrimination cases.

Elected and Appointed

Jon L. Cochran and Robert A. Wiygul were elected shareholders of Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller.

Both attorneys are litigators.

Cochran represents financial institutions, corporations and individuals in a range of complex matters before federal and state courts, including fiduciary duty litigation, civil rights, ERISA, employment and contract disputes.

Cochran also maintains an active pro bono practice and serves on the executive board of the Homeless Advocacy Project, a legal services organization that provides advocacy and representation to homeless individuals and families.

He is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he received the Francis Wayland Prize for Litigation.

Wiygul is a trial and appellate lawyer who focuses his practice on commercial litigation, environmental litigation and complex insurance coverage litigation.

He is also committed to pro bono work and serves on the board of the Public Interest Law Center, where he co-chairs the litigation committee.

He attended Yale Law School.

Following law school, he served for two years as a law clerk to Judge Anthony J. Scirica, then-chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Announcements

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