Pitt Law Alumnus, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Debra Todd to Deliver Law School Commencement Address May 24

PITTSBURGH-The Honorable Debra M. Todd, a 1982 University of Pittsburgh School of Law graduate and a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, will deliver the address for the law school's 2008 commencement ceremony to be held at 11 a.m. May 24 in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium and Museum, 4141 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

The University will confer 271 degrees, including 244 Juris Doctorate degrees, 16 Master of Laws degrees, and 11 Master of Studies in Law degrees. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

Prior to her election to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in November 2007, Todd served as a judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania from 2000 through 2007. She began her service on the Supreme Court in January 2008. She is only the second woman elected to the Supreme Court in its nearly 300-year history.

Todd was an in-house litigation attorney for U.S. Steel Corporation from 1982 through 1987. She maintained a trial practice in Pittsburgh from 1987 though 1999, with an emphasis on complex civil litigation.

An elected member of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, Todd is an alumnus and former board member of the Leadership Pittsburgh Program. Her other memberships include the Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania, and the American bar associations; the American Judicature Society; the National Association of Women Judges; the International Association of Women Judges; and the Women's Bar Association of Western Pennsylvania. She also is a fellow of the Allegheny County Bar Association.

Todd has been a lecturer and panelist for continuing legal education programs on trial and appellate practice and procedure. She serves as a board member of the Finnegan Foundation and Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

While earning her J.D. degree at Pitt's School of Law, Todd served on the "Law Review." In 1979, she earned the B.A. degree with honors at Chatham University, and she received the Master of Laws degree in judicial process from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004.

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