Delco re:View Fall 2018 - 12

www.DelcoBar.org

A Staunch Commitment to Systematic Betterment
The current Chief Judge for the Eastern Pennsylvania District
Court is Judge Juan Ramon Sanchez.
The people in the district are represented by the United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, currently
William M. McSwain.

History
The United States District Court for the District of
Pennsylvania was one of the original 13 courts established by the
Judiciary Act of 1789, 1 Stat. 73, on September 24, 1789. It was
subdivided on April 20, 1818, by 3 Stat. 462, into the Eastern
and Western Districts to be headquartered in Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh, respectively. Portions of these districts were
subsequently subdivided into the Middle District on March 2,
1901, by 31 Stat. 880. At the time of its initial subdivision,
presiding judge Richard Peters, Jr., was reassigned to only the
Eastern District.

Current judges
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania has 22 authorized judgeships, filled by judges
appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. In
addition, numerous judges who have taken senior status continue
to hear cases.

An Open Letter to the Bench and the Bar ...
The Honorable Chad F. Kenney
My dear Colleagues on the Bench and at the Bar,
It has been an honor and a privilege to be able to call this
Courthouse my home for the last 21 years, first as Sheriff then as
Judge. It has been an honor and a privilege for me to interact as
a colleague with essentially all of you on a first name basis over
these many years. This community of lawyers and judges has
been very special to me. I looked forward to coming into work
every day for all these years. It is all of you who have created
this environment that is more like a neighborhood than merely
the county legal center and seat. To say I will miss this daily
interaction with all of you is a vast understatement. I cannot put
it into the proper words.
I can say that drawing from each of you every day was
really a breath of deep satisfying and invigorating air. I loved
my almost daily lunches at the Bagel Shop with my fellow

12 | Fall 2018

continued from page 11

judges. I loved that we sat outside and many of you would stop
and chat with us. Where else would you find this kind of good
will and interaction amongst the Bench and the Bar? I loved
our meetings at the bar, our open meetings with Bill and I and
all of you. I loved our Bench Bar meetings every June and the
genuine camaraderie, good will and good cheer that was integral
to it. The President Dinners, Law Day Ceremonies, Induction
Ceremonies and Naturalization Ceremonies were all events that
made this place special for me.
I loved all my days in court: Family, Criminal, Civil, Civil
Motions, Orphans' Court. Of course, I had my favorites, but
having said that, there was not one section I was in that I did not
think the work was critical to the interests of the well-being of
the community. As a practitioner, I experienced most of the ups
and downs and the stresses you all face in a very challenging
profession. As a Judge, I came to admire and sometimes admire
with awe the commitment and the energy and the talent you
would bring to the courtroom every day. I often asked myself,
was I that good, was I that zealous, was I that talented as a
practicing lawyer in the trenches? Many of you often humbled
me in that way. I often reminded myself and others that the
pressure is not on the judges' side of the bar, the pressure is on
the other side.
I am forever honored that my colleagues chose me to be
President Judge. Those years were very special to me. They
made me grow as a person. They gave me a platform upon
which I could not only reach out to all of you, but I could also
reach out to every court and county employee and to recognize
on behalf of the Board of Judges how we all really do appreciate
the fine lawyering and legal administration that makes our legal
world go around. The judges are often the end game, but the
judges do not get there without all the hard work that all of you
and all our administrators and our staffs do every day that gets us
ready to do what we need to do.
I was fortunate to be the President Judge during a period
in which we had the luxury of a full bench, and not just a full
bench but an extremely talented, dedicated and hard-working
bench bar none. And we had a bench that did not take an ivory
tower approach. Each judge was approachable and accessible.
Each one understood the pressures of practice. Even more so,
we had a bench whose "third floor" collegiality was remarkable
in nature. Judge Nilon embodied this spirit. We miss him
profoundly, and we think of his down to earth approach when
we consider our daily interactions amongst ourselves and our
approach to the bench.
http://www.DelcoBar.org
Delco re:View Fall 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Delco re:View Fall 2018
