Mr. Silberblatt is a partner with the Pittsburgh law firm of Silberblatt Mermelstein, P.C. He received his B.A., cum laude, from Allegheny College in 1977 and his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1980 where he served on the Law Review. He is Board Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Civil Trial Advocate. Mr. Silberblatt concentrates his practice in civil litigation with a particular emphasis on lawyers’ professional liability matters. He currently serves as the 128th President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.  He has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Allegheny County Bar Association.  He is a Fellow of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County and has served on its  Board of Governors. Mr. Silberblatt has served as Chair of both the Civil Litigation Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Civil Litigation Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and he has served on the as a Director of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation. He served as the Zone 12 Governor of the PBA from 2015 to 2018 and is a member of the PBA House of Delegates. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the PBA Lawyers Professional Liability Committee, a current member of council of the PBA Minority Bar Committee, a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board, and a Hearing Committee Member for the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He received a PBA Special Achievement Award in 2000 for his work in planning the PBA Civil Litigation Section’s Retreat, the PBA President’s Award in 2002 for his efforts with Senate Bill 406 and Rule 1023.1 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, and a PBA Special Achievement Award in 2004 for his work in planning and presenting malpractice avoidance programs for the Professional Liability Committee. A third generation Pennsylvania lawyer, he is the author of numerous legal articles that have appeared in The Barrister, The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, The Pennsylvania Law Weekly, The Pennsylvania Lawyer, The Pittsburgh Legal Journal, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, The Advocate, and Trial. Mr. Silberblatt has lectured for the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, and Minnesota Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company.

Representative Dan Frankel has been, and always will be, an outspoken advocate for civil rights and public health. He champions legislation to bring equality to Pennsylvania for LGBTQ+ residents, stands in staunch opposition against efforts to limit women’s healthcare options, and works tirelessly to end gun violence with common sense measures. In the wake of the 2018 tragedy at the Tree of Life building, Representative Frankel assembled a coalition of community and faith organizations and others to fight for an update to Pennsylvania’s laws to address hate crimes in a modern era. Currently serving as the Democratic chairman of the House Health Committee, he promotes science-based policies to protect and improve the public health of the Commonwealth. He serves on the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council to contain healthcare costs and support high-value care. In addition, Rep. Frankel is co-chair of the PA SAFE Caucus and the founder and past chair of both the PA Women’s Health Caucus and LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. Representative Frankel serves the heart of Pittsburgh, representing the neighborhoods of Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Greenfield, Oakland, Point Breeze, and Regent Square. As the Representative, he leads these communities with the same compassion and activism he sees from his neighbors. An active member of his community, he works to build a thriving region for everyone. Representative Frankel sits on Allegheny County’s Area Agency on Aging’s Advisory Council, the State Employee Retirement System board, and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s Board of Directors. He also serves as Governor Shapiro’s representative to the Board of Trustees for the University of Pittsburgh. Representative Frankel previously served as President of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service board. In addition, he’s honored to have participated in Pittsburgh’s urban renaissance through his past work on the Urban Redevelopment Authority Board of the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau Board. Representative Frankel is a graduate of the Pennington School (1974) and Kenyon College (1978). He completed a certificate program for senior executives in state and local government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (2000). Formerly an insurance executive, he served as a Vice President at Hilb, Rogal, & Hamilton Co. and a regional insurance brokerage firm, Frankel Co. Representative Frankel resides in Squirrel Hill, down the street from the house he grew up in. He is married to Debra Frankel, a psychotherapist. Together, they have three grown children. 

Ms. Bairnsfather is a nonprofit leader and public intellectual with expertise on antisemitism and its intersections with racism and other forms of hate. She has built community for several decades inside and outside of academia.

James Pasch was named ADL’s Senior Director of National Litigation, after serving the last four years as ADL’s Cleveland Regional Director (serving Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania). Building on the path-breaking litigation that ADL has helped to bring in federal court for the District of Columbia against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers for the role they played in the January 6 insurrection, James is leading a legal advocacy practice for ADL during a particularly important time, as antisemitism and extremism become more mainstreamed, normalized and amplified both online and off. In his new position, James will build a strategy of legal advocacy to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate, regardless of their political or ideological source. In his time leading the ADL Cleveland Office, James launched a pro-bono legal assistance program to assist victims of hate crimes in Ohio and, under his leadership, ADL’s No Place for Hate education programming has grown over 200 percent regionwide. He also drove the region’s response in the aftermath of the Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh, the deadliest terror attack on Jews in U.S. history. James Pasch graduated from University of Vermont and earned his law degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Prior to entering the legal profession, James worked on Capitol Hill, first for Senator Frank Lautenberg and then as a law clerk on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He then built a thriving small firm litigation practice in Cleveland. James served as the Case Western Reserve Law School’s Assistant Dean of Development and External Affairs during the Law School’s Capital Campaign. James has also served two-terms as a Councilman in Beachwood, where he led the City’s passage of its anti-discrimination ordinance.

David N. Wecht was elected to a ten-year term on The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in November 2015 and began his service as a Supreme Court Justice in January 2016. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is the oldest appellate court in the United States of America and predates the nation’s independence by several decades. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was established by the Commonwealth’s Judiciary Act of 1722 and traces its roots to the Provincial Appellate Court created in 1684. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice Wecht served as a Judge of The Superior Court of Pennsylvania from January 2012 to January 2016, and as a Judge on The Court of Common Pleas for Pennsylvania’s Fifth Judicial District from February 2003 to January 2012. From January 2009 to January 2011, Justice Wecht served by appointment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as Administrative Judge of the Fifth Judicial District’s Family Division, which encompasses both domestic relations cases and cases of juvenile dependency and delinquency. As Administrative Judge, Justice Wecht designed and implemented several reforms and innovations, including the Unified Family Court, the local rule on parenting coordination, and improved conflict counsel appointments in juvenile cases. Prior to taking the bench, Justice Wecht was twice elected as the Allegheny County Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court. In that capacity, he pioneered innovations that included creation of a free will consultation program for seniors and authorship of a state law that prevents accused murderers from controlling their victims’ estates. Justice Wecht is a 1984 Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale, where he was a National Merit Scholar and earned Yale College Distinction in both history and political science. At Yale Law School, Justice Wecht was selected as Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and as an Editor of both the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Yale Journal of International Law. While a law student, he also volunteered as a certified legal intern in the Office of the State’s Attorney in New Haven, Connecticut, and provided pro bono legal assistance to inmates of the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1987, Justice Wecht served as Law Clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge George MacKinnon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington, D.C., and received the Award for Distinguished Service in that position. From January 1989 until taking the bench in February 2003, Justice Wecht continuously practiced law, first at Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC, then at Katarincic & Salmon in Pittsburgh, PA, and finally at The Wecht Law Firm in Pittsburgh, PA. He was licensed to practice in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., and was admitted to the bar of numerous state and federal courts, including The Supreme Court of the United States. A frequent lecturer to bench, bar, and community groups throughout Pennsylvania and in several other states, Justice Wecht also has served for many years on the faculties of the Duquesne University School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught at universities in China and Israel. Justice Wecht’s extra-judicial writings have appeared in a number of publications, including the Yale Law Journal, Gonzaga Law Review, Widener Commonwealth Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Pennsylvania Bar Quarterly, Pennsylvania Lawyer, Pennsylvania Law Weekly, Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, Pittsburgh Legal Journal, Tablet, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Midstream, and others. Justice Wecht also serves or has served as a Fellow or Member of several professional organizations, including the American Law Institute, the Judicial Education Advisory Board of George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center, the Allegheny County Bar Foundation, and the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. He has volunteered his time to a number of governmental, civic, and community boards and groups, including the Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership Center, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee, the Law Enforcement Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee of the Community College of Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission, and others. Justice Wecht was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill section, and attended Shady Side Academy, where he played football and lacrosse. Justice Wecht and his wife Valerie were married at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation, on whose Board of Trustees he served. Justice Wecht and his wife continue to live in Allegheny County, where they raised four children, all of whom are now adults.