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JOEL S. BARRAS is an attorney in the Philadelphia office of Reed Smith LLP, where he practices in the area of management-side labor and employment law, with an emphasis on public-sector labor and employment related litigation and advice. He provides legal guidance and counseling to municipalities on matters relating to the Policemen and Firemen Collective Bargaining Act (Act 111), the Police Pension Fund Act (Act 600), the Public Employee Relations Act (Act 195), the Police Tenure Act, the Borough Code, the First and Second Class Township Codes, Local Agency Law, as well as other areas of law relating to municipal affairs and employment litigation. Prior to coming to Reed Smith LLP, Mr. Barras spent two years as an assistant counsel at the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. Mr. Barras earned his B.A. degree, in political science, from Vassar College; his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law; and his M.S. degree, in mass communications, from Boston University College of Communication. Mr. Barras is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (member, Labor and Employment Law Section) and the American Bar Association. EDMUND J. CAMPBELL is an attorney with Silverang & Donohoe, LLC. His practice focuses on all facets of real estate land development, including municipal law, zoning, subdivision, environmental and other government agency permitting, government finance, and entitlements. Mr. Campbell also has broad experience in the areas of civil, construction and commercial litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Campbell served for six years as vice president and assistant general counsel of O'Neill Properties Group, LP, where he specialized in municipal law, zoning, real estate development, land use, government finance, government entitlements and civil litigation. His responsibilities included coordinating land use, overseeing the land development entitlement process for all projects, securing all state and federal permits and approvals necessary for development, and overseeing in-house and outside consultants. Prior to joining O'Neill Properties Group, LP, Mr. Campbell was in private practice and represented builders and developers in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. Mr. Campbell is the former chairman of the Montgomery Bar Association's Young Lawyer Division. He is a member of the Montgomery, Pennsylvania and American bar associations. Mr. Campbell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a master's degree from the University of Scranton. He earned his law degree from Villanova University School of Law. IAN S. CLEMENT is an attorney in the Princeton and Philadelphia offices of Wong Fleming, Attorneys at Law, where he focuses his practice on civil rights and commercial litigation in state and federal courts. Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Clement served as police officer with the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia and testified in federal court in §1983 cases following the 1989 Greekfest Riot. As an attorney, Mr. Clement has previously served as a special deputy attorney general/assistant prosecutor, where he handled felony and capital appeals before the Superior Court and the Federal District Court of Appeals. Most recently, he has served as a deputy attorney general with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice in the Casino Prosecutions Bureau. Mr. Clement earned his B.A. degree from Old Dominion University and his J.D. degree from Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Mr. Clement is a member of the Philadelphia (Labor and Employment and Minorities in the Profession committees) and the National (Corporate Counsel Section) bar associations, as well as the New Jersey State and Garden State bar associations. JOHN A. Di PIETRO is managing partner of Di Pietro Law Offices in East Norriton, Pennsylvania. He earned his J.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame. In addition to being a civil litigator for most of his career, Mr. Di Pietro also brings in excess of 34 years of experience in real estate, zoning, land use, business and municipal law to his practice. He has served as solicitor for many municipalities and zoning and planning boards. In addition to representing local governments, Mr. Di Pietro has acted as legal counsel for real estate developers, general contractors and financial institutions. More recently, he has served a five-year term as in-house underwriting counsel and marketing agent for a major title insurance company. Mr. Di Pietro has substantial experience in teaching land use, zoning, title and real estate law courses and seminars for members of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and for various professional organizations, including National Business Institute. He often is a guest columnist on legal issues in a variety of internet media outlets. Mr. Di Pietro is a member of the Pennsylvania, Montgomery County and Philadelphia bar associations, and has practiced before several federal district and appellate courts. ALAN W. FLENNER is an attorney with High Swartz LLP, a general practice law firm based in Norristown, PA. He concentrates his practice on issues affecting the built and natural environments, with a particular emphasis on environmental, land use and municipal law. He has substantial experience representing municipalities, developers, non-profit institutions and individuals in zoning, land development, code enforcement and other regulatory compliance matters. He provides advice on local environmental regulation, including stormwater management, sustainable development and alternative energy issues. In addition to practicing law, Mr. Flenner serves as a captain in the Reserve Component of the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps. He is currently assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations Management Analysis unit at the Pentagon. His Navy engineering and leadership experience includes numerous operational assignments with the Naval Construction Force (Seabees) and a variety of staff assignments with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. He has commanded a naval construction battalion; coordinated battle damage repair in Fallujah, Iraq; and directed environmental programs at installations in Philadelphia and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Flenner holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the Pennsylvania State University; a Master of Science degree, in civil engineering, from the University of Illinois; and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Delaware. He is the secretary/treasurer of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Municipal Law Section, the vice-chairman of the Montgomery Bar Association Environmental and Energy Law Committee and a member of the Executive Committee of the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin. He is a licensed attorney in Pennsylvania, a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and a registered environmental manager with the National Registry of Environmental Professionals. PETER S. FRIEDMAN is a founding shareholder of the law firm Friedman, Schuman, Applebaum, Nemeroff & McCaffery, P.C. Mr. Friedman concentrates his practice on real estate law, land use and zoning, as well as corporate and business law. In more than 30 years of practice, he has represented a wide variety of clients, including real estate developers, landlords, national retailers, governmental departments and religious institutions in connection with a variety of real estate transactions and commercial development projects. Mr. Friedman also has significant expertise in the area of retail leasing, including the acquisition, sale and leasing of retail and mixed-use properties. In this arena, he represented landlords in the negotiation of leases and of operation, and easement agreements with some of the nation's largest "big box" retailers such as Lowes, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority and Old Navy. Mr. Friedman also is very experienced in handling matters before zoning hearing boards, as well as securing municipal permits and approvals for a wide variety of development projects, including land development and subdivision approvals. In the corporate and business law practice, he counsels individuals and corporations in connection with a wide variety of business contracts. Currently, Mr. Friedman serves as solicitor to the Montgomery Department of Housing and Community Development and the Montgomery County Development Corporation. He has previously lectured for National Business Institute and has co-chaired a CLE course conducted by the Montgomery County Bar Association titled "Retail Leasing - From Mom and Pop to Big Box," He also has chaired breakfast roundtable discussions at several ICSC Law Conferences. MICHAEL J. SAVONA is a shareholder in the law firm of Friedman, Schuman, Applebaum, Nemeroff & McCaffery, P.C., where his primary areas of concentration are in municipal, land use, zoning and government law. He also is an experienced trial and appellate attorney. Over the past 14 years, Mr. Savona has served as solicitor to numerous municipalities and government agencies across the state of Pennsylvania. His past clients include: nine different townships, boroughs, cities and zoning hearing boards in southwestern Pennsylvania, where he practiced for ten years before relocating to Philadelphia to join Friedman Schuman in 2006. Since that time, Mr. Savona has served as counsel to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, as well as solicitor to Middletown Township, Lower Southampton Township, Warminster Township, Conshohocken Borough and the Borough of Hatboro. He also represents a consortium of Bucks County tax collectors and has litigated cases on behalf of tax collectors throughout Pennsylvania, seeking to protect their right to collect taxes on behalf of the citizens who elect them to fulfill this function. Mr. Savona's efforts on behalf of tax collectors and their constituents has taken the issue to the halls of the State Supreme Court. He is a respected authority on the Municipalities Planning Code and the local land development process, and has guided his municipal clients in their efforts to promote redevelopment to foster "green" development initiatives, and to streamline the development review process in order to make his municipal clients an attractive place for new business to locate, develop, and prosper. In 2009, at the direction of the Township Board of Supervisors, Mr. Savona spearheaded the effort to rewrite the entire zoning and subdivision codes of Warminster Township in Bucks County. This resulted in a ten-fold increase in the number of development applications filed in the township, even in the midst of a recession which stagnated development in all of the bordering communities. As an appellate attorney, he has represented parties in ground-breaking cases before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, as well as the Pennsylvania Superior and Commonwealth Courts, which made new law in the commonwealth in areas as diverse as criminal law, marital property, tax collection, and zoning and land development. Mr. Savona has lectured regarding the management of land development applications, zoning for economic redevelopment and the need to reinforce the system of real estate tax collection within the commonwealth before the Montgomery County Bar Association, the Bucks County Zoning Officers' Association and the Pennsylvania State Tax Collectors' Association. Mr. Savona is a past executive committee member of the Washington County Bar Association, and is an active member of the Montgomery and Bucks County bar associations, as well as the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Solicitors and the Pennsylvania Borough Solicitors Association.
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