If you’re considering a job change this year, the Pittsburgh Legal Community’s top resource for legal job postings is the ACBA Job Board. Firms, corporate legal departments and legal services departments post positions frequently, including those directly targeting the Pittsburgh Legal Community. For more information, contact Jennifer Pulice, the ACBA’s Director of Legal Employment Services, at jpulice@acba.org.

The Pittsburgh Legal Journal – the official legal journal of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas containing trial lists, legal notices, sheriff sales and more – is published five days per week and is available only to subscribers. It is delivered via email as an easy-to-print, 8.5x11-inch pdf. For an informational video on the PLJ, click here.

The YLD Public Service Committee is organizing the annual Military and Veterans Project – “Operation MVP” – and all members are invited to participate. The project, sponsored by Spilman Thomas & Battle, is designed to help personnel and veterans by providing them with care packages and other support; there are two ways to participate.

• Amazon Wish List: Members can purchase items for military personnel and veterans from an Amazon Wishlist, available here. Needed items include snacks, personal hygiene items, playing cards, games and puzzles.
• In-Person Event:  Help stuff care packages in the Koppers Building Conference Center on Tuesday, May 20 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Participants can also enjoy happy hour, complete with appetizers, beer and wine and hear from representatives from Fisher House and Operation Troop Appreciation.

For more, click below.

All members are invited to join the Hispanic Attorneys Committee at the ACBA Cinco de Mayo Celebration on Thursday, May 1 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the ACBA offices. The event will feature a brief salsa dancing lesson from Cross Body Movement, followed by mingling and networking with authentic food and drinks.

The Allegheny County Bar Foundation is accepting Board of Trustee applications to fill three seats on the ACBF Board. Trustees serve for a period of three years. This term will begin July 1, 2025. The foundation board meets a minimum of six times per year on the first Wednesday of alternating months. Meetings begin at 12 p.m. and are held at the ACBA Headquarters, 400 Koppers Building, 436 Seventh Ave, Pittsburgh, PA.

Trustees must be a Fellows GIVE member of the Bar Foundation or willing to become a Fellows GIVE member upon appointment to the board and should have a proven track record of public service and/or participation with a non-profit board or organization or other charitable activities.

Interested members should submit their completed applications and resumes using the below online form by Wednesday, April 30. As a part of our efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and ensure that individuals with a variety of different lived experiences are heard, candidates from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. To apply online, click the button below.

ACBA members and their families are invited to join the ACBA Community Service Committee for the group’s “Spring Cleaning” event on Saturday, May 17 from 9 a.m. to noon.

The ACBA is partnering with Allegheny CleanWays for a morning of collecting litter and beautification. The group will meet at a park in Bloomfield, cleanup litter there, then branch out further into the neighborhood. Note that participation will involve walking and cleaning up litter. Gloves and grabbers will be provided, as well as hats, donuts and refreshments.

Need temporary conference room facilities downtown for a mediation, deposition or client meeting? Practice in the suburbs but have an occasional need for office space when you have a court date downtown? Legal professionals can rent conference rooms in ACBA headquarters – located in the Koppers Building in downtown Pittsburgh –  on a daily or short-term basis for as little as $50 for members. For more, contact Barb Brumbaugh at bbrumbaugh@acba.org.

The April 18 edition of Pittsburgh Legal Journal Opinions is available online. The Pittsburgh Legal Journal publishes timely, precedent-setting, full-text opinions from various divisions of the Court of Common Pleas. Opinions that appeared in past editions are available in a searchable database here; members must be logged in to the ACBA website to access this database.

People use ubiquitous platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to update friends and family about the ups-and-downs of life. While social media can empower connections to keep us informed about important personal matters, scammers often hijack accounts to share fake posts, often including emotional details, with the end goal of convincing the accounts’ followers and connections to send money or take other action. These scams are particularly dangerous because they appear to come from a trustworthy source, manipulate emotions, and spread rapidly. Key steps of protecting yourself include:

• Be skeptical of emotional posts explicitly asking for money
• Verify the post directly with the purported poster – don’t just rely on social media
• Watch for red flags, such as payment requests in medium such as bitcoin, or requests to continue the communication in a second platform

To thwart becoming a “hijacking” victim in the first place, use long/unique account passwords, and two factor authentication, where available.

For more information, click the article below.

The ACBA announced its ratings for those individuals running for judicial office in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in the May 20 primary election. This week, WESA – the local NPR station – published its voter guide, including the ACBA Ratings. For more information or to see the ratings, click below.