Superior Court Judge Jack Panella - An Appealing Appellate Jurist

I had a rare opportunity to interview Superior Court Judge Jack Panella on Friday. He was at the courthouse to deliver copies of his Sexual Violence Benchbook, and we sat down for lunch in the cafeteria.

Panella is like a rock star at the Northampton County courthouse. People warm up when they see him, and he responds in kind. "I miss everyone here so much," he told me and everyone else.

That's one little way in which Judge Panella and I are different. When people ask him how he's doing, he answers "I'm the happiest person in the world." When they ask me, I respond "None of your frickin' business."

Although I never noticed it at the time, there was definitely something wrong with my law school graduating class. We were a motley crew. One of my classmates just gave up his license one day and started searching titles in Lehigh County. And he had nothing to worry about because he worked for the Disciplinary Board. But his fellow grads did, and were reeled in, one by one. At least ten of us, including me, have been disbarred or suspended over alcohol and drug abuse.

The most nefarious of us all was then state senator Budd Dwyer. When this state legislator attended law school, he never looked down his nose at us. He was a little older and always dressed in suit and tie, but I remember him as a kind and slightly quiet guy. He helped a lot of us land part time jobs in the land of midnight payraises. I worked for the state PUC and AG, and had absolutely no idea what I was doing at either place, but the money was good. After we had all graduated and were off committing felonies, misdemeanors and malpractice, Dwyer became state treasurer. But he was as crazy as bed bugs, just like the rest of us. He's the dude who blew his brains out before five television cameras one day instead of pleading guilty to one count of bribery.

He went out with a bang - literally.

Needless to say, my former law school does not solicit my class for contributions.

Just as my group was a collection of misfits, there's an occasional crop of lawyers who represent the very best in that profession. After graduating, they teamed up and drove to Philly daily one summer in the same shitty car to study for the bar, scarfing hot dogs for lunch if they had money. This distinguished cadre of young men included John Morganelli (Northampton County DA), Jay Leeson (Bethlehem City Council), Phil Hof and Jack Panella (Superior Court Judge). They were all admitted to Northampton County's Bar together.

In this elite group of barristers, Panella excelled. He served as an assistant county solicitor, and was soon named County Solicitor, back when Gene Hartzell ran a very tight and happy ship in Northampton County. Panella was the youngest person ever named as the county's top legal eagle. He then became the second youngest person to serve as a Northampton County judge, being appointed to the bench in 1991.

During his days as a common pleas judge, Panella fell in love with running. "It saved my life," he tells me. If you run 5 ks anywhere in this state, you might be running with him. I remember driving with him and a collection of other lawyers like Mike Vedomsky, Danny Cohen and Phil Hof to run a ten mile race in Brooklyn one Sunday. Panella may have been a judge, but that day he was a runner.

Although he could stay on the bench forever in Northampton County, Panella is a scholar. So he decided to buck the odds and run for Superior Court. Amazingly, he won, and in 2004, he became an appellate judge.

Of fifteen superior court jurists, only Judges Jack Panella (Lehigh Valley) and Corry Stevens (coal regions) are from the eastern part of the state. "We need more balance," laments Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.

Being a superior court judge is a great honor, but it's also a lot of work. The judges literally ride the circuit. They spend one week each month in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg or Philly, sitting in three-judge panels to listen as lawyers argue that some lower court committed a legal error.

That's why the superior court is often called the court of second guess. It's where most appeals from a trial court are heard. The vast majority of the 8,201 appeals filed last year, were from criminal convictions. Because the supremes are so reluctant to hear appeals, the superior court is usually the last bastion of hope for those seeking justice.

Panella told me he must write at least one opinion every day just to keep up with the workload. To give you an idea of what's involved, you must first sit down and read transcripts, a lower court opinion and the briefs filed by all sides to a dispute. Then you have to research the law yourself. It's almost as hard as blogging!

Panella has one piece of advice for lawyers arguing in the superior court - don't try to predict the outcome. "I'm almost always wrong when I try to guess how judges are going to decide something."

Over the past three years, Panella has been writing a book for judges and lawyers - a benchbook - at the request of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. As he explained things to me, a similar benchbook has been used by Michigan judges, and they reported it is very helpful. So Panella undertook the daunting task of assembling caselaw and statutes concerning the panoply of sexual offenses and their consequences. Each judge will be provided with both a CD and a three ring binder benchbook that can be easily updated as the law evolves. This enables a judge to make a quick ruling from the bench when a legal issue arises. Because cases involving sexual offenses are sensitive, a handy reference like this is long overdue.

During the course of writing this tome, Judge Panella said his biggest surprise was how quickly Pennsylvania legislators react when someone points out a problem. "Nobody ever says anything nice about them. Regarding this area of the law, the legislature is very responsive."

Now that Panella has completed his three-year project, I hope this Lehigh Valley judicial scholar gives some thought to running for the state supreme court, which would benefit from his combination of intellectual acumen and ready accessibility.

People said he was too young to be county solicitor. He wasn't. They said he was too young to be a judge. He was one of the best. They claimed no Lehigh Valley resident could get elected to a state appellate court. He proved them wrong.

I hope Judge Panella considers the state supreme court, not for his sake, but for ours.