HARRISBURG (May 2000) -- Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Engel Temin was presented with the Anne X. Alpern Award by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession during the organization�s Annual Meeting held this month in Hershey.

The Anne X. Alpern Award is given to a female lawyer or judge who demonstrates excellence in the legal profession and who makes a significant professional impact on women in the law. The award, established in 1994, was named for Anne X. Alpern, Pennsylvania�s attorney general in 1959 who was the first woman state attorney general in the nation.

Before starting her career as the first woman to be hired on the staff of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, Judge Temin attended the University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania Law School. She later served as chief counsel to the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole and as an assistant district attorney. She was elected to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County in 1983 and was retained for a second 10-year term in 1993.

Presently assigned to the Civil Trial Division, she previously served for four and one-half years as chief criminal calendar judge. In 1992, Judge Temin became the first woman to be elected president of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. She also authored the Pennsylvania Benchbook for Criminal Proceedings.

Judge Temin has been active in many professional and community organizations, including the American Bar Association, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, National Association of Women Judges, Jewish Publication Society, Arden Theatre, Philadanco and the Philadelphia Dance Alliance. She was elected to membership in the American Law Institute in 1997.