HARRISBURG (May 6, 2002) - Michael Reed, a partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP, was elected vice president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) during the association�s annual meeting May 1 - 3 in Hershey. Reed will become president of the association in 2004, making him the first African-American lawyer in the history of the association, chartered in 1895, to assume the presidency.

An active member of the PBA, Reed is a past chair of the House of Delegates and Minority Bar Committee and is credited with organizing the first PBA Minority Attorney Conference in 1988. He serves on the executive committee of the Conference of County Bar Leaders and as a member of various PBA committees. Reed also is involved in committees and sections of the American and Philadelphia bar associations.

From 1990-1993, Reed served on the Pennsylvania Judicial Inquiry and Review Board by appointment of Governor Robert P. Casey. He served for six years as a member of a hearing committee of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In 2000, he was appointed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to chair the Merit Selection Committee to fill the bankruptcy judgeship vacancy in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. A fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, Reed also served as chair of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference. He was an adjunct professor of law at Temple and Rutgers-Camden schools of law.

Actively involved in the Philadelphia community, Reed serves on the boards of the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Committee of Seventy. He is a former board member of Episcopal Hospital, Friends of Logan Square and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. For 10 years, Reed served as a co-advisor for the Philadelphia Law Explorers Post of The Boy Scouts of America.

Reed is a graduate of Temple University and Yale Law School and was admitted to practice in 1972. He and his wife, Yalta Gilmore-Reed, have two children, Alexandra, 19, and Michael Jr., 12.