ParfumGigi@aol.com

By Asher Hawkins and Gina Passarella

The Legal Intelligencer

11-20-2006

Ending months of speculation, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Sandra Schultz Newman has confirmed to The Legal that she will leave the bench at the end of the year and return to private practice as an appellate attorney.

Beginning in January, the first woman elected to the state's top court will head the appellate practice group at Philadelphia-based Cozen O'Connor, where her brother is a partner.

"I love appellate work -- never knew I would, as a matrimonial lawyer," Newman said in an interview Friday.

Firm Chairman Stephen Cozen said he has "no doubt that [Newman] will be making rain for Cozen O'Connor."

With Newman off the bench, Pennsylvania voters next fall will have to fill her high court seat and the seat vacated by former justice Russell M. Nigro, in addition to deciding whether to retain Justice Thomas G. Saylor.

Newman, the Supreme Court's official liaison to the Philadelphia court system, said she first began to think it was time to step down one day last spring, when she remarked to her chief law clerk how interesting she found a particular case on the court's docket, and realized she had been feeling that way less and less.

"There was a time when every case was exciting," she said. "I had a social lunch with [Cozen O'Connor president and CEO] Pat O'Connor and my brother [Mark Schultz], and [O'Connor] talked about my coming to the appellate department, and it sounded exciting, but I kind of just laughed it off. But that prospect just sounded better and better to me as time went on."

Newman -- who at 68 would have hit mandatory retirement age in about two years -- did acknowledge that the events surrounding her fall 2005 retention race did play a role in her decision.

Anger over that summer's pay-raise affair had only increased by November 2005, particularly among voters in the central part of the state, and Newman and Nigro -- who was also running for a second 10-year term -- wound up raising and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a category of state elections historically devoid of big money and high drama.

Ultimately, Nigro was defeated by 51 percent of the vote, the first time a sitting Pennsylvania justice has not been retained in an election. Newman was retained by a relatively slim majority of 54 percent.

About a month before the election, Newman's husband, Julius, a renowned cosmetic surgeon, died following a lengthy illness.

As late as two weeks before the election, Newman had done virtually no campaigning.

Then she got a visit from her politically savvy son Jonathan, who is of counsel at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel's Philadelphia office and also serves as chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

"My son called me like 10 days before [the election], and he said, 'You've got to [start campaigning]; if Daddy were here, he would kick your ass and make you do it,'" Newman said.

Newman raised, then spent, roughly $320,000 in the week before the election, according to campaign finance and expense reports filed with the state.

Newman said she believes the backlash against the court in the wake of the pay raise -- including criticism of the court's handling of the ensuing litigation -- has affected the collective spirit of the court.

"Nobody talks about it, but I think it has," she said.

Newman said that when she joined the court some 11 years ago, the members of its bench were particularly wary of the media in the wake of the Rolf Larsen scandal.

A similar apprehension toward the media has returned to the court as a result of the pay raise affair, she said.

"There's nothing [a justice] can say [to the media] that's right anymore, as far as I'm concerned," Newman said, adding later, "No matter what we say, it gets twisted."

Newman had recently found her personal life under increasing press scrutiny, with local media publishing articles about whether her family's interests in standardbred horse racing had anything to do with her recusal last spring from involvement in a lawsuit over Pennsylvania's gaming statute, and about her appearance on a local TV news program in which she spoke of her successful treatments with a "cellulite wand."

Newman told The Legal that she believes the press's coverage following the pay raise drama has been unfair -- particularly with respect to her colleagues' expense reports. She did say that new internal guidelines detailing what the justices should and should not expense are clearer than they have been in years past.

And she stressed that she herself has never charged taxpayers for an unreasonable expense nor allowed others to foot her bills.

"I never went to a [Pennsylvania Bar Association] meeting where anything was paid for for me," she said by way of example. "I personally never did anything that wouldn't be within the guidelines now."

Newman said that she considers herself "personal friends" with each of the court's sitting justices. Because of those relationships, she promises that she will not personally argue cases before the court once she becomes an appellate attorney.

"I would never want to put that on my good friends," she said, adding later, "I saw that as something that might be uncomfortable."

But Newman said she doesn't believe it will be problematic for her to be otherwise involved in appeals to the state Supreme Court, as several former justices have gone on to practice privately as appellate lawyers after stepping down from the bench.

And although she will no longer be a justice as of 2007, Newman hopes to keep involved in court-related projects she has spearheaded, just as former justice William Lamb of Lamb McErlane in West Chester has remained active in the court's medical malpractice-related initiatives.

One longtime project has been the push to create new facilities for Philadelphia's Family Court -- an effort that has repeatedly stalled despite widespread recognition that the Family Court's facilities are seriously inadequate.

"You have to get the money from the state," Newman said when asked about a potential solution to the problem. "I don't know why people think the legislators and the court have to be at odds all the time. There are many times that we have to work together, such as every year when we go up to do the [judiciary's] budget."

Newman also said she'd like to continue to help monitor the progress of the court's courthouse security initiative, which she has led. Newman succeeded in convincing city officials in Philadelphia of the need to ramp up security at City Hall, and has overseen the disbursement of security-minded funding to court systems across the state.

Newman said that when it comes to courthouse security, there's still plenty to be done: many Pennsylvania courthouses lack up-to-date hardware, like metal detectors.

As far as who'll replace her as the court's liaison justice for Philadelphia, Newman said she wouldn't be surprised if no one succeeds her in that role.

"I get the feeling that since Philadelphia is so smooth now, and they're the only court that has a liaison, I'm not sure they'll get [a new] one," she said.

In addition to leading Cozen O'Connor's appellate practice group, Newman said she will also be in charge of its dispute resolution services.

In an interview Friday, firm Chairman Cozen -- also a member of the firm's appellate practice group -- said that group's three most prominent leaders have been Gaele McLaughlin Barthold, Elizabeth Chambers Bailey and Ruth Greenlee, but that it has never before had an official leader.

"When it became apparent to us that she might be looking for a change, we jumped on the opportunity," Cozen said of Newman's departure from the bench.

"It was time to move on," Newman said of her decision. "Now I have this new excitement, this new interest."

In related Cozen O'Connor news, the firm is disputing a rumor that Tad Decker -- the former managing partner who left to become the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's current chairman -- might be in talks to return to the firm.

Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Baer reported last week that Decker might be leaving the board to run the firm before his GCB term ends in late 2007.

While Cozen O'Connor has announced that it is in the process of succession planning, and O'Connor has hinted that he might soon step down, Cozen said he was not currently talking with Decker about rejoining the firm.

"It is untrue that we are talking to Tad Decker about coming back and taking any leadership role at this time," Cozen said. "As long as he is in that role [with the GCB], we do not want to discuss these kinds of issues with him."

Cozen said the firm periodically meets with Decker to talk about firm issues if the firm leadership thinks Decker might have some insights. The firm would be happy to talk with Decker about coming back if he decided he wanted to leave the board, Cozen said, adding that he hopes Decker would consider the firm. That hasn't happened yet, however, he stressed.

"We're not talking about it with him," Cozen said.

But Cozen declined to comment on whether the firm has been talking to anyone other than Decker about the possibility of Decker's returning.

GCB spokesman Doug Harbach also refuted the rumor.

"Tad Decker is totally committed to his job as chairman of the Gaming Control Board, [and he] will continue to oversee the board through licensing and anticipates to finish his term."

That term concludes at the end of 2007 and Decker could either stay on for one more three-year term or give up the post, Harbach said.