[ News Article ]
Former Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin Joins Duane Morris
By Gina Passarella
March 4, 2008
The Legal Intelligencer
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court began its first argument session of the year this week without former interim Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin on the bench.
Now that her stint on the high court has concluded after the election of Justices Seamus P. McCaffery and Debra Todd to the court, Baldwin has joined the partnership of Duane Morris in the firm's Pittsburgh office.
Baldwin, who joined the firm yesterday, will focus her practice on appellate litigation within the firm's trial practice group and will also use her education background in representing universities and colleges in litigation, transactional matters, intellectual property, real estate and labor and employment needs.
She said she wasn't sure how her time would be split in terms of the dual roles but said it was important to her to join a firm that would allow her to stretch beyond the limits of the appellate practice. Duane Morris' traditional work for not-for-profit organizations will allow her to do work on the education side, she said.
Baldwin wanted to stay in the Pittsburgh area and had opportunities at both nonprofits and other large law firms ? not all of which were based in the Steel City. She said it was a feather in Duane Morris' cap that it respected her wishes not to talk to anyone about future employment until she was off the bench.
The firm approached her once her appointment concluded in January.
Prior to serving on the high court from 2006 to early January 2008, Baldwin was a judge in various divisions of the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for 16 years. From 1983 to 1986, she was the attorney-in-charge in the Office of the Attorney General at the Bureau of Consumer Protection under LeRoy S. Zimmerman.
Valerie Esposito of McAnney Esposito & Kraybill Associates in Pittsburgh said Baldwin is clearly extremely well thought of and Duane Morris is thrilled to be getting her. She said it is a real coup for the firm, particularly because Baldwin was said to have many options.
Baldwin's addition adds another layer to an already strong litigation practice because of her appellate work. She also brings the potential for new clients with the colleges and universities focus, Esposito said.
Duane Morris created a formal appellate practice in April 2006 with the addition of former Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Byer as a partner in Pittsburgh. Esposito said Byer is well-known in the practice area, and she and Baldwin together would strengthen the firm's appellate practice.
When asked whether she would argue any cases before her old colleagues on the Supreme Court, Baldwin chuckled. She said she doesn't personally plan to practice before the court but would help prepare arguments for her colleagues. She said she is looking forward to working with both Byer and Duane Morris Chairman John Soroko.
"We are very pleased and honored to have Cynthia Baldwin join us as a partner," Soroko said in a statement. "All that she has accomplished in her legal career, including in her years as a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, well equips her to make a major contribution to our clients, not only in Pittsburgh and throughout Pennsylvania, but in all our offices across the country."
Baldwin said she is happy where she is now and doesn't see any judicial elections in her future.
"It's like they say, 'been there, done that, got the T-shirt,'" she said.
It was back in October that several appellate practitioners spoke to The Legal's sister publication, the Pennsylvania Law Weekly, about why rumors Baldwin wouldn't want to accept a second interim position on the court might be true.
"My sense is that when she took the position that she has now ? she saw it as a great way to cap her judicial career," Byer said at the time. "It would not surprise me if she told the governor that she wasn't interested."
Making good on her statement that she likes to keep busy, Baldwin said she plans to continue her board positions along with working at Duane Morris full time.
Baldwin is a trustee and immediate past chair of the board of trustees of The Pennsylvania State University, is trustee emerita of the Duquesne University board and serves on the Pennsylvania Commission for Justice Initiatives.
Prior to attending law school, Baldwin taught English and was an assistant dean of student affairs at what is now the Greater Allegheny campus of Penn State.
She was both a visiting and an adjunct professor at Duquesne University School of Law and also taught at Widener University Law School in the trial advocacy program.
In September, the Greater Pittsburgh Athena Award selection committee awarded Baldwin the Athena Award for her success in her profession. She was given the award in part for the work she does with judiciaries of other countries.
She is involved in an effort in Guinea and Uganda to fight government corruption and to educate people on their rights and responsibilities as citizens of a democratic government.
This article originally appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and is republished here with permission from law.com.