Recently, the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania appointed a new Board Chair and Board Vice-Chair. Attorney Jerry Lehocky will serve as Board Chair and attorney Dion Rassias as Vice-Chair, effective April 1, 2022. In 2023, Rassias will replace Lehocky as Board Chair and John C. Rafferty will fill the Vice-Chair vacancy. Additionally, the Court reappointed Gretchen A. Mundorff as a member of the Board. All four of these lawyers are in private practice and have vast experience in civil litigation.
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What do these appointments mean for attorneys and the attorneys who represent them? The Disciplinary Board, composed of 12 members (10 members of the Bar and two non-lawyers), is the agency charged with carrying out the Court’s constitutional authority to regulate attorney conduct. As a lawyer representing Respondents before the Board, it is comforting to have adjudicators who, through their own careers, have experienced the difficulties, stress, and challenges that attorneys face on a daily basis. But the Board still lacks real gender and racial diversity. The commitment of the Court and the Board to the values of equality and equity, as demonstrated by its passage of Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4 (g) and the Board’s recent efforts to diversify Hearing Committee appointments augurs well for the future. We hope the Court will keep this need for diversity in mind as new Board positions open up.