Reed Smith LLP issued the following announcement on May 5.
The Legal Intelligencer, a leading legal-trade publication in Pennsylvania, will honor Reed Smith in three categories at the upcoming 2021 Pennsylvania Professional Excellence Awards. Glenn Mahone, who broke barriers in 1973 when he joined Reed Smith to become the first African-American lawyer hired by a major law firm in Pittsburgh, was awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Additionally, partner Perry Napolitano, a financial services litigator and member of the firm’s Executive Committee, was honored among the “Best Law Firm Mentors,” and partner Ron Francis, who has held several management positions, including as managing partner of the Pittsburgh office, was named one of 2021’s “Unsung Heroes.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes lawyers “who have left an imprint on the legal history of the state during their career.” Mahone, who retired in 2020 after 47 years with the firm, is a beacon to Black lawyers in Pennsylvania who have aspired to reach the highest levels of success in law.
"It would not be hyperbole to say that you would be hard-pressed to find a Black lawyer in the city of Pittsburgh that Glenn has not mentored or influenced either directly one-on-one or indirectly where Glenn’s mentee then mentors others,” said Jason Hazlewood, managing partner of the Pittsburgh office. “The reverberations of his impact have and will continue to ripple out through this city for decades to come.”
Mahone has served in many roles over his illustrious career, including as chairman of the Urban League; chairman of the Allegheny County Airport Authority; director branch chairperson of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; and general counsel to the Pittsburgh Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, overseeing the City of Pittsburgh’s fiscal recovery. He was also chair of the Board of Visitors at Virginia State University; a trustee of Duquesne University and Westminster College; chair of Manchester-Bidwell Corporation; and a director of Matthews International Corp., to name only a few of his many achievements over a half century devoted to law.
Original source can be found here.