HARRISBURG (March 3, 2023) — The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Conference of County Bar Leaders (CCBL) honored PBA Executive Director Barry Simpson with its Chief Justice John P. Flaherty Award. The award was presented at the 57th Annual Seminar of the Conference of County Bar Leaders on March 3 in Hershey. Simpson, the longest-serving executive director in the more than 125-year history of the PBA, will be retiring in May.
The Flaherty Award honors the work of an association member for supporting and promoting the projects and purposes of the CCBL and for efforts to improve the legal profession, the justice system and the community.
Since joining the PBA in 1999, Simpson has built alliances in the organized bar community. He created the statewide series of annual Presidents’ Dinners that brought together PBA leaders and presidents and state and local bar association leaders. He also supported the creation of a special program for local bar executives at the PBA Midyear Meeting, and he has continued to encourage funding and staffing for the CCBL and the PBA’s County Bar Services Department.
One of Simpson’s priorities was promoting diversity within the legal profession and organized bar community. He spearheaded the hiring of the PBA’s first diversity officer and supported the efforts of the PBA Diversity Task Force and Diversity Team, the PBA Women in the Profession, LGBTQ+ Rights, Minority Bar, and Civil and Equal Rights committees.
Focusing on leadership initiatives, Simpson urged the creation of a task force that expanded the number of appointed members on the PBA Nominating Committee, which is responsible for identifying future PBA leaders. In addition, the PBA Federal Practice Committee, one of the association’s largest and most active committees, was formed with Simpson’s guidance.
Internally, Simpson led the integration of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, which had functioned as a separate nonprofit organization, into the PBA as the association’s education department.
Simpson has instituted a variety of programs and services to benefit lawyers and local bar associations. Among his numerous achievements include leading the creation of the PBA’s first free online legal research program for members, assisting in negotiating legal malpractice insurance plans to benefit members and spearheading the PBA’s social media efforts.
In addition to his PBA responsibilities, Simpson is a current member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Continuing Legal Education Board. He is a past board chair of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts Board, and past treasurer and member of the Supreme Court Attorneys’ Fund for Client Security.
Simpson has been an active member of the Pennsylvania Association of Bar Executives and he has served on working committees of the National Association of Bar Executives.
A PBA member since 1973, Simpson served in the PBA House of Delegates from 1996 to 1999.
Among his honors, Simpson received the Allegheny County Bar Association’s 2018 Amram Award, which is given to those who personify professional excellence and who have demonstrated substantial commitment to the ideals of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the betterment of the legal community. In 2015, he received the Conference of County Bar Leaders’ Arthur J. Birdsall Award, which recognizes a bar executive who demonstrates professional excellence, who is committed to the success of his or her bar association and who significantly enhances the stature of his or her bar association.
Prior to leading the PBA staff, Simpson was a partner in the Pittsburgh law firm of Ecker, Rome, Simpson and DeAngelis PC, where he joined in overseeing the daily business operations of the firm and the legal and administrative staffs.
While in Allegheny County, Simpson was a member of the PBA House of Delegates and served as a delegate to the American Bar Association. He served as president of the Allegheny County Bar Association in 1998, and is a member of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and American Trial Lawyers associations.
Simpson received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and his Bachelor of Science degree in marketing management from The Pennsylvania State University.
The Conference of County Bar Leaders, whose membership includes leaders from county bar associations throughout the state and from the Pennsylvania Bar Association, organizes a yearly educational conference focusing on the exchange of innovative bar association projects and ideas and on the development of mutually beneficial relationships among bar leaders that improve the legal profession.