Meet the Board

Michael H. Reed, Esq., is senior counsel in the Philadelphia office of Troutman Pepper where he is a member of the firm’s Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice Group. He is a member of Temple University’s Board of Trustees and of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Mr. Reed is a 1969 graduate of Temple University (B.A. Pol. Sci.) and received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1972. He was associated with the firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP as an associate, partner and counsel from 1972 until 2020 when that firm became Troutman Pepper by merger. Mr. Reed is a past President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and previously served on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association and as the State Delegate for Pennsylvania in the ABA’s House of Delegates. He currently chairs the ABA’s Standing Committee on Constitution and Bylaws. Mr. Reed was previously a member of the Pennsylvania Judicial Inquiry and Review Board and chaired the Professional Guidance (Ethics) Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Prior to being selected as Chair, Mr. Reed served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Ethics. He is currently serving his final term on the Board that will end in November 2025.

Judge Phyllis W. Beck (Ret.), served 25 years on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. She was the first woman elected to that office. Before becoming a judge, she spent many years in private practice and she served as a vice dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After retirement from the Superior Court, she was general counsel of The Barnes Foundation, served as a mediator for the Superior Court, and now serves as a mediator and arbitrator. Judge Beck is the appeals judge for the Chester Housing Authority. She currently serves as Chair of the Independence Foundation, President of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy, member of the State Board of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, and member of the Board of the Foundation of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Her term on the Board of Ethics runs until November 2022.

Sanjuanita González, Esq., practices Immigration law at Sanjuanita González Law Firm, a Center City Philadelphia law firm. Ms. González is a former President of the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations (Concilio), the oldest Latino community based organization in Pennsylvania. She previously served on the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Ms. González is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; the Philadelphia Bar Association; and the Hispanic Bar Association. Ms. González’s term on the Board runs until November 2023.

JoAnne A. Epps, Esq., served as Executive Vice President and Provost of Temple University from 2016 to 2021. She has been a member of the faculty of Temple Law School since 1985 and served as Dean of Temple Law School from 2008-2016. She is the author and co-author of several books and articles on Evidence and Trial Advocacy. Commemorating Black History Month, in February 2015 U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. honored Ms. Epps at the U.S. Senate. From March 2015 until January 2017, she was the chair of a Police Community Oversight Board created by Mayor Michael Nutter. In June 2017, Ms. Epps was honored by The Legal Intelligencer as a Distinguished Leader in her field. In May 2017, she received the Consular Award on Italian National Day by the Consulate General of Italy and was also the recipient of the Inaugural JoAnne Epps Award by the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia. In November 2016, Ms. Epps was honored by The Philadelphia Inquirer as one of the inaugural class members of the Philadelphia Business Hall of Fame. In 2015, the National Association of Women Lawyers presented her with the M. Ashley Dickerson Award for her work toward diversity in the legal profession. In 2014, Ms. Epps was awarded the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award by the Philadelphia Bar Association and in 2009 received the Association’s Sandra Day O’Connor Award for her efforts to advance women in the profession and the community. A three-time honoree by Lawyers of Color Magazine as one of the 100 most influential black lawyers in the country, Ms. Epps was named by National Jurist Magazine in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 as one of the 25 most influential people in legal education. In February 2018, Ms. Epps became an independent trustee for PREIT and serves as a member of the Audit Committee and as chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee. She serves on several non-profit Boards, is a Director of the American Bar Association Retirement Funds, and was the court-appointed monitor of the settlement of the lawsuit challenging Philadelphia’s stop and frisk activity until July 2019. Ms. Epps is a former Deputy City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles and Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is currently serving on a final term that will end in November 2024.

Brian J. McCormick, Jr., Esq., is a partner with the law firm of Ross Feller Casey, LLP in Philadelphia. He has a national practice that includes representing whistleblowers in qui tam and fraud actions involving the waste of government funds and resources, as well as representing plaintiffs in products liability and mass tort litigation. Mr. McCormick received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law and is a graduate of the University of Richmond. Before being appointed to the Board of Ethics, Mr. McCormick was selected by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to serve on the Mayor’s Task Force for Campaign Finance and Ethics Reform, which produced a final report in late 2009. A number of the recommendations in that report have been enacted in Philadelphia. Mr. McCormick formerly served as a member of The Committee of Seventy, the Philadelphia nonpartisan watchdog group. Before attending law school, Mr. McCormick served as an analyst with the FBI in its Philadelphia office, and also worked as a newspaper reporter in the Philadelphia area. Mr. McCormick’s term on the Board runs until November 2021.