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Rendell Names Phila. Attorney as GC
By Melissa Nann Burke
April 22, 2005
The Legal Intelligencer
In naming bond lawyer Barbara Adams to be his next general counsel yesterday, Gov. Edward G. Rendell chose a longtime adviser on affordable housing and public finance projects who has spent years representing local and state government agencies.
Adams, who chairs Duane Morris' public finance group, will oversee more than 500 lawyers at 32 Pennsylvania agencies as the next general counsel to the commonwealth.
She starts June 1.
Adams' "experience in government work, as well as her lifelong commitment to community service, made her a natural choice to be my top legal adviser," Rendell said yesterday in a statement.
The general counsel job is open because Leslie Anne Miller resigned last month after two years of service.
Miller said she resigned because of the appearance of a conflict of interest created by a lawsuit she and others filed to stop Penn State University from dissolving the Dickinson School of Law's board of governors and creating dual law school campuses.
The acting general counsel, Peter G. Glenn, has said he plans to return to a law professorship at Dickinson in July.
Adams, 53, didn't think very seriously about Miller's job when she heard about her departure, but Rendell solicited her interest, she said.
"He thought I might not be able to do it because my kids are headed for college," said Adams, who lives in Philadelphia with three teenage daughters. "After I did my taxes, I realized I could afford it. . . . I told him I had saved some money."
The governor called two weeks ago to schedule the meeting where he extended the offer.
"I was frankly stunned by the confidence [he had] and the job description," she said. "It was a very attractive job description."
Adams envisioned the position directly tapping her areas of specialization - namely tax-exempt public finance, affordable housing development matters, campaign finance law, open meeting "sunshine" laws and local government law, among other areas.
She has practiced at Duane Morris for 28 years, starting as a summer associate in 1977 and becoming partner in 1986.
At the impressionable age of 8, Adams became interested in government and politics during John F. Kennedy's campaign for president in 1960.
"I remember the convention, I remember the race and I remember how mad my friends were that he won," she said. "I've been fascinated ever since."
Growing up in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, friendly family debates about politics among her grandparents - Democrats - and her parents - Republicans - stoked that fascination, she said.
While studying at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., she wrote a paper on her "behind-the-scenes" experiences campaigning for George McGovern in Schuylkill County. Adams, a Democrat, then headed to Washington, D.C., to intern for then-Sen. Richard Schweiker.
"I decided I was interested in becoming involved in politics behind the candidate, as support staff, not as the candidate myself," she said.
Eying a career as a lobbyist, Adams spent a year in law school at Temple University in 1973 before taking a research job back in Schuylkill County, where officials were trying to keep freight lines running as the major Northeast railroads went under and reorganized to form Conrail.
That position led to a two-year stint as secretary for the Railroad Task Force for Northeast Pennsylvania.
Adams moved on to a business development job at First Valley Bank in Bethlehem. She took law classes at night and graduated in 1978.
First Valley Bank was represented by a law firm - Duane Morris, Adams said.
It was at a 1977 event for firm summer associates where Adams met the Rendells - just weeks after Ed's election to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, she said.
They stayed in touch, and she later worked with Rendell during his mayoral administration through her involvement in various projects and deals for the Delaware River Port Authority and Philadelphia Parking Authority.
Adams later served as commissioner of the Philadelphia Gas Commission, and she was on Rendell's gubernatorial transition team in 2002.
Adams said she knows both Miller and Paul Tufano, who was general counsel to former Gov. Tom Ridge, and will call on both for guidance when needed in her new post.
She was excited yesterday about being part of Rendell's core team, she said via cell phone from the capital, where she had traveled for a meeting with Rendell.
"In my practice I try to give the legal answer to clients but also step back and be an adviser," she said. "Sometimes it's beyond just the legal question."
This article originally appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and is republished here with permission from law.com.
