Pa. Bar Association presents Phila. attorney with business lawyer award

A Philadelphia attorney last week was awarded with the state Bar Association’s first-ever

W. Edward Sell Business Lawyer Award.

The Pennsylvania Bar Association Business Law Section announced Nov. 19 that five days prior, during the Business Law Institute held in Philadelphia, attorney William H. Clark, Jr. was presented with the inaugural award for his “extraordinary contribution to the practice of business law” in the commonwealth.

Sell, the award’s namesake, had been a driving force behind the enactment of business corporation law in Pennsylvania, the Bar Association announced.

The lawyer, who had served as chair of the Title 15 Task Force of the association’s Banking and Business Law Section, also had served as dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s.

The Business Law Section of the PBA consists of about 1,300 Pennsylvania attorneys who support the advancement of business practice through practical legal education, the drafting of legislation and networking and communicating with the state bar.

As for Clark, the lawyer was only in his fifth year practicing back in 1988 when he joined with Sell and the late Philadelphia attorney William Zeiter to co-author Pennsylvania’s Business Corporation Law, which the PBA credits with having brought the state’s corporate law into the modern era.

Clark was also involved in the drafting of the state’s Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act and the Pennsylvania Limited Liability Law, according to the PBA.

Clark was also a drafter of the recently enacted Benefit Corporation Law, of which the PBA Business Law Section was a sponsor.

Clark is also actively involved with various ongoing legislative projects, the PBA stated, including proposed revisions to the Nonprofit Corporation Law and to Title 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Clark, who is a partner at the Philadelphia office of Drinker Biddle, is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the American Law Institute.

Clark has also authored several books including a treatise on Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law and the definitive source of forms for state limited liability companies.