Erie Attorney Christine H. McClure to Be Recognized for Her Significant Professional Impact on Women in the Legal Profession
HARRISBURG (April. 6, 2022) — The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Commission on Women in the Profession (WIP) will present its annual Anne X. Alpern Award to Erie attorney Christine H. McClure of Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett PC, on May 11 during the Commission on Women in the Profession (WIP) Annual Conference held as part of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Annual Meeting.
The Alpern Award is presented annually 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. Established in 1994, the award was named for Anne X. Alpern, Pennsylvania’s attorney general in 1959 and the first woman state attorney general in the nation.
McClure has the distinction of being the first woman to be elected to her firm’s board of directors. She concentrates in estate planning, elder law, representation of borrowers and lenders in business transactions, general business counsel, municipal and school district law. In addition, she is certified to practice in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, and she is AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated. She is a frequent lecturer for her firm’s annual Municipal Law Symposium.
Her career highlights include winning a precedent-setting case before the U.S. Supreme Court that determined a certificate of deposit is not a security and is therefore not subject to anti-fraud provisions; arranging for the world-renowned ceramic artwork of a deceased Benedictine Monk to continue to be sold through a private gallery with the proceeds going to a branch of the Boston Foundation that assists struggling artists; and arguing a successful appeal before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of a school district to establish the correct seniority date to be used in a teacher suspension.
Active in the PBA, McClure has been a member of the WIP since 2010. Her professional involvement includes serving as a voting member of the PBA House of Delegates from 1993 to 2001, past vice president and current secretary of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, and trustee and secretary of the Pennsylvania Bar Trust and Pennsylvania Bar Insurance Fund. Other highlights include serving as the first woman PBA zone 7 governor, chair of the foundation’s Silent Auction Committee, member of the PBA Task Force on House of Delegates Term Limits and member of the PBA Task Force on Recommended Revisions to the Pennsylvania Code of Judicial Conduct. She is the current vice chair of the Judicial Campaign Advertising Committee.
A member of the Erie County Bar Association, McClure was the first woman to receive the Erie County Bar Association’s Chancellor of the Bar Award. In addition, she was the second woman elected to serve as president of the association. She also serves as chair of the Erie County Law Foundation.
Her accolades include receiving the President’s Award and the Board of Governor’s Service Award from PBA, Women Who Achieve Award from PNC Bank and Cornerstone Award for Women in Law Award from Chatham University. She was named a Women Making History Honoree by Mercy Center for Women.
Contributing to her local Erie community, McClure has served as board chair of Springhill Retirement Community; chair of Brevillier Village Foundation Inc.; board president of Ball Pavilion Inc.; governance committee member of Asbury Communities; and president of Arts Erie.
McClure graduated from Chatham University, where she served on the board of trustees, and Villanova University School of Law.
For more information on the WIP awards luncheon or the PBA Annual Meeting, visit https://www.pabar.org/pdf/2022/AnnualMeeting2022.pdf.
Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access of legal services; and serve the lawyer members of the state’s largest organized bar association.