Bob Catina of Effort Receives the PBA Young Lawyers Division Liberty Bell Award

HARRISBURG (May 16, 2018) — The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Young Lawyers Division presented its 2018 Liberty Bell Award to Bob Catina of Effort, Pa. on May 10 during the state association’s Annual Meeting in Hershey.

The Liberty Bell Award honors individuals for their outstanding community service and for promoting the “blessing of liberty” guaranteed by the Constitution.

Catina is being recognized for his dedication to encouraging a greater respect for the rule of law and the courts, as well as his work toward creating a deeper awareness of individual responsibility of one’s rights and duties.

After teaching business law at Pleasant Valley High School for nearly 40 years, Catina currently serves as tipstaff to President Judge Margherita Worthington of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas. At Pleasant Valley, he served as a mock trial coach in the PBA Young Lawyers Division Statewide Mock Trial Competition for 35 years. He also regularly held the positions of bailiff and scoring judge in this program. Committed to using mock trial as an educational endeavor, Catina was part of a group of educators and lawyers in Monroe County who created and grew a “preseason” mock trial tournament.

In addition, Catina was actively involved with the Temple University Law, Education and Participation (Temple-LEAP) project, a statewide law-related education network. He presented educational sessions at statewide and national law-related educational conferences, as well as hosted some of these events at Pleasant Valley High School.

His work at Temple-LEAP led him to becoming a national trainer with the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law (now known as Street Law), where he worked with  other national law-related education programs through a network of educators, lawyers and judges supported by the PBA and the American Bar Association.

After retiring from teaching in 2006, Catina continued his law-related education efforts through volunteering at LEAP-Kids, the successor to Temple-LEAP, and the PBA Statewide High School Mock Trial Competition.

For his dedication to civics and law-related education, Catina has been honored with the 1989 Monroe County Bar Association Liberty Bell Award, the 1990 IU 20 Leadership Award for Teacher Training Programs and the 1999 Temple University Law School Trainer of the Year Award.

Catina received a B.S. in Business Education from Wilkes College in 1969, an M.Ed. in Business Education from Bloomsburg University in 1972 and an M.Ed. in Classroom Technologies from Wilkes University in 2001.

Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association exists to promote justice, professional excellence and respect of the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access to legal services; and serve the 26,000 lawyers who are members of the association.