PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

A Philadelphia lawyer and general counsel to the Pennsylvania Republican

Party has been appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett to a seat on the board of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

Attorney Lawrence Tabas, a partner with Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel in Philadelphia, was tapped to fill a vacancy on the PICA board created by the departure of its former chairman, Sam Katz, who left earlier this year amid talk of a possible mayoral run.

Tabas, who chairs Obermayer’s Health Law Department ad Election Law Practice Group, will serve out an unpaid, two-year term on the board of PICA, which was created in the early 1990s to provide financial assistance to the City of Philadelphia.

Tabas, a former candidate for Philadelphia city controller, has experience in dealing with governance and financial matters and risk, he told the Pennsylvania Record in a brief phone interview.

“I’ve had a lot of interest in the city’s financial well-being,” he said. “I’m looking forward to participating.”

In addition to his 1985 run for Philadelphia controller, Tabas also ran for City Council in 1991 and for a seat in the state House of Representatives back in 1980, his biography shows.

Tabas previously served as a commissioner of the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission and as a member of the State Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators.

At Obermayer, Tabas has represented physicians, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, medical equipment companies and healthcare care providers in a variety of legal matters.

He also maintains an extensive election law practice, with more than 35 years of experience representing state, federal and local candidates for office, as well as committees, political parties, and governmental bodies in election law matters.

Tabas served as co-chair of the Pennsylvania legal team for Romney-Ryan in 2012, as chair of the legal team for Sen. John McCain during his bid for the presidency in 2008, and chair of the litigation team in Pennsylvania for Bush-Cheney 2004, according to his professional biography.

Tabas frequently lectures on election matters and he has authored various election law publications.