Pa. Trial Lawyers Director Moving to Private Practice
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Reprints & PermissionsThe long-time executive director of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, Nancy Mulloy-Bonn, will be leaving her post next month to go back to private practice.
Mulloy-Bonn will join Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin as an associate in the firm's business and corporate law departments. She will practice corporate and transactional law in the representation of municipalities, according to managing partner Steven H. Lupin.
"Nancy is a unique, multitalented lawyer who has been an outstanding executive director of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association over the past 10 years," Lupin said. "We are delighted to have the opportunity to mesh her talents with our talents and firm."
"It's a big change for me," Mulloy-Bonn said of her move. "I have essentially really leaned on my business degree rather than my law degree."
She said that in her 12 years as executive director of the association, she became knowledgeable on various types of law, and she looks forward to seeing where she will best fit in at the general-practice firm.
Mulloy-Bonn not only has a law degree but a master's in administration as well. She said that degree, coupled with her experience running a business at PaTLA and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute before that, will help her in several practice areas.
"It's really a rare opportunity to see the practice as a bar executive," she said, adding that she now has a knowledge base in domestic relations, municipal law, bond work and personal injury law.
"I'm an adventurer; who knows what I'll be attracted to?" she said.
The former New York state assistant prosecutor is looking forward to using her business experience in the firm's corporate department.
Mulloy-Bonn said that although she does not portray herself as a practicing lawyer, in her previous roles she has handled contracts and employment issues, as well as taxation and fund-raising issues.
PaTLA member Frank Wesner was on the committee that hired Mulloy-Bonn and worked with her as he moved his way up the ranks to become president of the organization in 1999.
"Far and away she impressed all of us the most of all the candidates," he said. "She seemed to understand attorneys. She seemed to understand the philosophy of our organization."
Wesner said he had complete confidence that Mulloy-Bonn would make the transition into private practice with ease.
"She has fantastic administrative and organizational skills," he said.
According to Wesner, Mulloy-Bonn easily handled the varying personalities of the different PaTLA presidents over the years, put together countless seminars and served as the face of the organization.
Wesner said Mulloy-Bonn followed the old adage, "Never let 'em see you sweat."
At the age of nearly 40 and pregnant with her first and only child, it was an unusual time for Mulloy-Bonn to apply for her job at PaTLA, former PaTLA president Carol Nelson Shepherd said.
That didn't stop them from hiring her, Shepherd said, adding that Mulloy-Bonn's continuing legal education work with the Pennsylvania Bar Institute made her a good choice 12 years ago, when PaTLA was getting more involved with legal training.
Once she decided to go into private practice, Mulloy-Bonn said it was important for the firm she chose to have good lawyers, good managers and good people.
She had known Lupin and Hamburg Rubin partner William C. Roeger Jr. from their work in the association.
The firm agreed to bring her on as an associate when she completed her term with PaTLA at the end of January. She will officially move into Hamburg Rubin's Lansdale, Pa., office on Feb. 6.
"Because of my position as a business executive for 28 years, I bring something to the law firm that most lawyers don't have," she said. "I have seen business cycles, boom cycles and bust cycles."
It won't be the easiest transition to make for Mulloy-Bonn, who has been at PaTLA since 1994. She said she was selected by the hiring committee then to form a new team, most of whom are still there.
"I hate to cut ties with people I love and a cause I believe in deeply," she said. "Everybody needs new challenges once in a while."
Shepherd said that while Mulloy-Bonn was a terrific leader for the organization, she was a friend to its members as well.
"She watched us through pregnancies and babies, divorces, losses and other tragedies, winning cases and losing cases," Shepherd said, adding that Mulloy-Bonn is leaving PaTLA with difficult shoes to fill.
As far as her move into the private sector, Shepherd said, "I think it's very brave."
For Mulloy-Bonn, it isn't an exhibition of bravery. It's natural.
"I have always been in the world of lawyers," she said. "I love lawyers."
