Pa. attorney specializing in appellate issues to receive James S. Bowman Award by Pa. Bar Assoc.

Kevin J. McKeon, a partner with the Harrisburg law firm of Hawke

McKeon & Sniscak, will be awarded the Pennsylvania Bar Association Administrative Law Section’s James S. Bowman Award during the PBA’s annual meeting in Hershey on May 15, the group announced on Tuesday.

The award recognizes an attorney who has made a significant impact on the practice of administrative law and who demonstrates leadership in mentoring administrative law practitioners.

McKeon, who is a long-time member of the James S. Bowman American Inn of Court, a nonprofit group that promotes excellence in professionalism, ethics and civility in the practice of law, is a noted expert on Pennsylvania’s appellate process.

The attorney, who was a law clerk to James S. Bowman, president judge of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court back in the late 1970s and early 80s, was one of the authors of Pennsylvania Appellate Practice, which offers procedures for developing appeals to the state’s three appellate bodies – Commonwealth Court, Superior Court and the Supreme Court.

McKeon has also served as lead counsel and as a consultant to other lawyers on appellate issues in various aspects of substantive law before the commonwealth’s appeals courts, according to a bio provided by the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

McKeon is also a past chair of the PBA’s Administrative Law Section and he is a current member of the organization’s Utility Law Section.

McKeon, who frequently lectures at continuing legal education programs run by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, which is the PBA’s educational arm, appears regularly before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and other Pennsylvania agencies and state and federal appellate courts, according to his professional biography.

His practice currently includes ongoing California energy crisis litigation and the representation of natural gas distribution companies in interstate pipeline proceedings.

McKeon has also represented clients appearing before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

McKeon is a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Appellate Court Procedural Rules Committee.