National Institute for Trial Advocacy Faculty Member Earns Prestigious Honor

Recipient secures Philadelphia Bar Association’s Sandra Day O’Connor Award.

LOUISVILLE, Colo. (PRWEB) September 6, 2006 -- The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), long recognized as the nation’s leading provider of litigation skills training, today announced that one of its esteemed faculty members, Roberta (Bobbi) D. Pichini, will be presented with the 2006 Sandra Day O’Connor Award at the Philadelphia Bar Association’s October Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon October 30. The award, established by the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Women in the Profession Committee thirteen years ago, honors successful women in legal professions who both advocate for the careers of their female colleagues and who advance society as a whole.

“Bobbi Pichini is a rare combination of a very talented and skilled lawyer who has attained prominence in her field of practice while finding time to devote to her family and mentoring other women lawyers,” said Roberta Liebenberg, Co-Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Women in the Profession Committee. “She is a role model for many younger women attorneys and exemplifies the qualities that the O’Connor Award was intended to recognize.”

Award candidates are selected by the Women in the Profession Committee based on letters of recommendation and their nominators’ responses to a detailed, multiple question application form. One factor that made Pichini the consummate contender was her dedication to Continuing Legal Education. Pichini single-handedly developed and facilitated four courses designed specifically for female attorneys: “Pride & Prejudice: Advocacy for Women Litigators,” “Persuasion: Negotiating for Women,” “Gender in Negotiation: Myth vs. Reality,” and “Race and Gender in the Courtroom: Tips and Tactics.”

Pichini specialized in litigating medical malpractice and product liability cases for approximately 20 years. She was a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Board of Governors from 1993-1996. Pichini chaired the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Women in the Profession Committee from 2002-2003 and continues to serve as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Representatives. She was the first woman in Pennsylvania invited into the elite International Academy of Trial Attorneys and became its first woman officer in 2003. Pichini joined the law firm of Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernter, Tanner & Weinstock in 2004. She has been a NITA faculty member since 2000.

About NITA

The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) is the nation’s leading provider of litigation skills training. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in Louisville, Colorado, NITA pioneered its unique learn-by-doing methodology over 35 years ago and has remained the gold standard in continuing legal education ever since. With an average student/faculty ratio of 4:1 and an all-volunteer faculty drawn from a cadre of judges, law professors and practicing attorneys, attendees at NITA’s week-long basic trial skills “boot camps” experience significant improvement in their ability to advocate for their clients. NITA places a special emphasis on training lawyers who work in child advocacy, tribal law, death penalty defense and violence against women. NITA is also the nation’s third largest publisher of legal texts, many of which are used by renowned law schools.

For more information, visit www.nita.org.

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