Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – June 27, 2005. Officers of the Allegheny County Bar Association today announced that Robert V. (Bob) Racunas has been elected its president for the year beginning July 1, 2005. The traditional passing of the gavel ceremony occurred during the association’s annual conference at Seven Springs on June 17. Racunas will continue serving as Executive Director of Neighborhood Legal Services, a position he has held for 25 years.
According to outgoing president Jim Carroll, Racunas is the first president of the bar association who currently works in the civil legal services area. “This enables Bob to have a pulse on the legal needs of the general public,” says Carroll. “I have worked closely with Bob over this past year, and it is clear that the bar association will be in extremely capable hands. He has a passion for the law and a desire to answer the needs of our members and the general public.”
Racunas, who has been serving as president-elect of the bar association for the past year, will merge his own goals for the association with some equally important ongoing goals such as the initiative to increase diversity in the Allegheny County legal community and raising awareness of the important work that attorneys continue to do in the community. Along those lines, Racunas will promote the importance of increasing the amount of pro bono work done by the association’s members.
“Our members have been doing pro bono work for those in need for more than 100 years, with little or no fanfare, and it’s important that all of our members continue this important service,” said Racunas. “In recent years, we have seen that in addition to the every day necessity for pro bono services, unforeseen incidents have created an immediate need for legal information and guidance. The floods caused by Hurricane Ivan created a demand for immediate legal advice for those devastated by the flooding, and our attorneys have also offered free legal services to families of military called to active duty during the Iraq War.”
Racunas said that in addition to his many years of legal experience, he is able to get a good idea of the needs of association’s members and the general public just by sitting down to Sunday dinner. His two sons and two daughters-in-law are attorneys practicing in the areas of patent law and intellectual property, civil litigation, public assistance, and governmental as an assistant district attorney.
Racunas is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Law School and was an adjunct professor at the Duquesne University School of Law for 20 years.
Chartered in 1870 and headquartered in downtown Pittsburgh, The Allegheny County Bar Association is a professional organization with more than 6,500 member attorneys, judges, district justices, legal administrators and paralegals.
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