Policies & Procedures October 2017
On December 4, 2014, following a unanimous voice vote in the United States Senate, President Barack Obama commissioned Mark A. Kearney as the 100th judge in the history of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The 2014-2015 President of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and 2009 President of the 2200-member Montgomery Bar Association, his national law practice from 1988 to 2014 concentrated in commercial, financial, employment and consumer litigation with special emphasis on the representation of business owners, investors, directors and officers. His varied experience included serving as lead counsel for both plaintiffs and defendants in class actions, multi-district litigations, mass tort actions, and in regulatory investigations throughout the United States. Recognizing his winning strategies, the Montgomery Bar Association honored Judge Kearney as the 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year. He was repeatedly elected (2011-2015) as a Top 100 lawyer in Pennsylvania and in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area by Thomson Reuters. Benchmark Litigation selected Judge Kearney as one of the top 50 “Litigation Stars” in Pennsylvania for 2013 and 2014. Judge Kearney received the highest peer rating of AV from Martindale-Hubbell since he became eligible in 1992.
Judge Kearney received his B.A. in Economics and English with honors followed by his J.D. from Villanova University in 1987, where he presently serves on Villanova Law School's Board of Consultors. Following law school, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Delaware Court of Chancery. A member of the Delaware and Pennsylvania Bars, he is published as a lead author on Delaware fiduciary standards in two editions of the Villanova Law Review (1995, 1996) and was a multi-year contributing editor to Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, where he wrote extensively on commercial, banking and corporate litigation for the international legal and financial community. A sampling of his many law articles include: "The Poison Pill as Shield and Gavel"; “The Redemption of Poison Pills: The New Battleground"; "Update on Target Auctions and Poison Pills"; "Paramount v. Time: New Options for Directors with Long Term Plans"; "Foreign Sovereign Investment in the United States” “Advisors Gain New Immunity from Racketeering Statutes"; "The Evolving Standard of Scrutiny Applied to Directors' Decisions"; and, "Cede III: Towards a Clear Standard for Corporate Fiduciaries".
In 2012, the United States District Court appointed Judge Kearney to the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. As a member of the District Court, he presently serves on the Third Circuit’s Building and Facilities Committee and the District Court’s Civil Rules Committee.