Pa. Superior Court Judge Anne Lazarus to receive Phila. Bar Assoc. award

Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Anne E. Lazarus will receive the Philadelphia Bar

Association’s Sandra Day O’Connor Award during the group’s quarterly meeting and luncheon on Wednesday, June 12, the PBA announced on April 22.

The award is given out each year to a female attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women in the legal profession and in the community.

Lazarus was first elected to the Superior Court, the second-tier appellate body directly under the Supreme Court, back in 2009.

The jurist served as a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge from 1991 until the time she was elevated to the appellate bench.

The quarterly meeting and luncheon of the Philadelphia Bar Association will also feature the Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Memorial Public Interest Lecture to be delivered by U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Marjorie O. Rendell, the wife of former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

The association will also take the day to honor the newest members of the Year Clubs, PBA members who have been in the practice of law for 50 or more years.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice O’Connor is also expected to be in attendance.

As for Lazarus, the judge was elected to the Superior Court in 2009 and took office in January 2010.

Lazarus attended undergrad studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1972, according to her professional biography, which is provided by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

Lazarus did her legal studies at Philadelphia’s Temple University.

Before becoming a trial judge in Philadelphia, Lazarus practiced as an attorney with the Philadelphia law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll.

She is a member of the American, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Bar Associations, the National Association of Women Judges and the American Judges Association.

Her previous awards and accolades have included the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Legal Services for the Public Judge’s Award, the Brandeis Law Society’s Benjamin F. Levy Community Service Award and the PLAN of PA Bernard White Community Service Award.