2024 Legislative Update

Crystal Clark is General Counsel for the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus, having been appointed to that post in February 2020. In her capacity as General Counsel, Crystal handles the legal aspects of personnel matters, contracting, government ethics and transparency, and all manner of general legal business of the Caucus, its members and staff. Crystal also oversees all litigation in which the Caucus or its members are involved in their official capacities, and assists with similar litigation for the Senate and the General Assembly. Crystal also serves as Adjunct Faculty for the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining the Senate, Prior to joining the Senate, Crystal focused her legal work in the areas of public sector and employment law during prior employment and affiliation with McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, the County of Lancaster, and Thomas, Thomas & Hafer, LLP. Crystal is a graduate of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Michigan.

Mr. Whitaker combines expertise in administrative and regulatory law with extensive litigation, trial and appellate experience, and he recently was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve as pro bono counsel to represent an indigent litigant before the Court. Currently, he is Of Counsel in the Appeals and Regulatory Law Practice at HMS Legal LLP (HMS) in Harrisburg and is part of HMS’ Cannabis Law PA medical marijuana practice and its renewable energy practice, HMS Renewable Energy. He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School. At HMS, Mr. Whitaker represents clients in a broad cross-section of matters addressing issues as varied as the constitutionality of legislation and regulations, public water suppliers and the interplay between the Pa. PUC and Pa. DEP jurisdiction, water allocations by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, defamation, insurance licensing and 5th Amendment takings. Mr. Whitaker is the only person to have been appointed as chief counsel to both the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and he also served on the Environmental Hearing Board Rules Committee. During his nearly 28 years of Commonwealth service, he litigated and argued complex cases at trial and on appeal before administrative tribunals and state and federal courts, prosecuted selected criminal matters as a Special Deputy Attorney General, developed expertise in Pa’s Right to Know Law, Section 1983 actions, the 11th Amendment and regulatory takings, and authored amicus briefs before the Third Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, the Pennsylvania Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth Courts and the courts of common pleas. Mr. Whitaker is the 2025 recipient of PBA’s Bowman Award, given to a lawyer making a significant impact on the practice of administrative law and demonstrating leadership in mentoring administrative law practitioners, and has been appointed to PBA’s Amicus Curiae Brief Committee. He is a past President of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and a past chair of Administrative Law Section, was a member of the Environment and Energy Law Section Council, and frequently serves as a planner and faculty member in CLE programs. Mr. Whitaker published an article in the July 2025 PA Bar Quarterly which discusses the development of administrative agency appeals practice in Pennsylvania and highlights current issues in addressing deference to agency statutory and regulatory interpretations. His article in the Ohio Northern University Law Review, Interdisciplinary Aspects of Seminole Tribe v. Florida: Environmental Law, 23 Ohio N.Univ.L. Rev. 1441, Vol. XXIII, No. 4, 1997, discusses 11th Amendment and immunity and state sovereign immunity in the context of environmental law after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Seminole Tribe decision. Mr. Whitaker discussed the practical and the tactical uses of amicus briefs in Courts should have more friends in Pennsylvania published in the Central Penn Business Journal (Mar. 15, 2019) and in Lehigh Valley Business (Mar. 25, 2019). He has prepared CLE materials and presented on subjects including Administrative Warrants under the 4th Amendment and the PA Constitution; Hearsay and the Legal Residuum Rule; Administrative Finality; Commonwealth Court Original Jurisdiction Practice; Practice Before Administrative Tribunals; Mining Law; Attorney’s Fees in Litigation with Government Agencies; Right to Know Law; Navigability and Commonwealth Submerged Lands; Preemption of Local Ordinances by State Statutes; Development of Agency Appeals Process, Scope and Standard of Review/Deference on Appeal, Deference at the State and Federal Levels after Loper Bright, and Nationwide Injunctions After Trump v. CASA. Mr. Whitaker clerked for Commonwealth Court Judges Joseph T. Doyle, Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter and Renee Cohn Jubelirer. He received his J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law and his B.S. in Man-Environment Relations (regional planning option) from the Pennsylvania State University, and he holds a certificate in Regulatory Analysis and Decision-Making from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Stephen B. Edwards is an associate at Black & Gerngross, P.C., where his practice focuses on insurance receivership matters. Before that, he worked in a number of roles centered around civil rights litigation, appellate advocacy, and administrative law. He is a past contributor to the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, The Pennsylvania Lawyer, and other publications. He lives in Philadelphia.

Before retiring as Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, Mr. DeLiberato supervised the preparation of legislative, historical, and ceremonial materials for the General Assembly and the publication of administrative regulations for Commonwealth agencies. He spent most of his career preparing proposed legislation, classifying enacted law, rendering legal advice to executive and legislative officers and employees, annotating court decisions on constitutional law and statutory construction, and responding to public inquiries on statutory and regulatory materials. In private practice, he did legal research, brief writing, and document drafting for attorneys in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Currently, Mr. DeLiberato teaches Legislation, Legislative Drafting, and State Constitutional Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School; works with Widener=s Law and Government Institute; and is a Life Member of the Uniform Law Commission, serving on its Standing Committee on Style and serving on various study and drafting committees. He has authored a digest on statutory construction and co-authored articles on Pennsylvania Supreme Court history, constitutional issues affecting legislative procedure, and simplification techniques for the Uniform Commercial Code. Mr. DeLiberato received a J.D. from Villanova University in 1975, an M.A. from Villanova University in 1976, and a B.A. from Saint Joseph=s University in 1971.

Anthony R. Holtzman serves as the Managing Attorney at the Fairness Center, where he oversees and participates in the organization’s litigation activities in federal and state courts, as well as administrative tribunals. Before he joined the Fairness Center, Anthony was a partner at a large international law firm. There, he regularly represented private and public sector clients, including legislative bodies and legislators, on issues of federal and Pennsylvania constitutional law. Anthony has significant experience and expertise when it comes to construing and developing arguments under constitutions, statutes, and regulations. He has argued cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, and various Pennsylvania and federal trial courts and administrative tribunals – including en banc arguments before the Third Circuit, Commonwealth Court, and Environmental Hearing Board. Anthony received his Juris Doctor from the Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University, where he graduated summa cum laude, received the John Maher Scholarship along with the Thomas A. Beckley Prize for Legal Writing and various Board of Governors’ awards, and was a member of the Woolsack Honor Society and Penn State Law Review. Before attending law school, Anthony received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Messiah University, where he graduated summa cum laude and achieved honors in Politics.

Eric S. Fillman, Esq. is a graduate LaSalle University (B.A. Political Science, 1984) and Widener Law Commonwealth (J.D., 1993). Now retired, he completed 36 years of public service with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1984-2020), including 1.3 years with the PA Department of Transportation, 2 years with the Office of the Governor as Deputy General Counsel, 29 years with the Pennsylvania General Assembly including 7 years as Counsel to the Bipartisan House Ethics Committee, and 3.7 years with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General as that Agency’s first Chief Integrity Officer. Flunking retirement, Fillman continues to serve as a volunteer Instructor with the Office of Attorney General teaching New Agent Ethics programs twice a year. He also teaches programs twice each year in both Ethics and in Bias & Procedural Justice for the Commonwealth Investigators’ Training Program (CITP).

Mr. Schwoyer serves as Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislation and Policy and Special Counsel to PA House Speaker Joanna McClinton.  He drafts legislation for, and provides advice and counsel to, the Speaker, and Members and staff of the House Democratic Caucus.  Before holding his current position, Mr. Schwoyer held similar positions with Democratic Leader Frank Dermody, Speaker Keith McCall, and Speaker Dennis O’Brien, and served as Chief Enforcement Counsel to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, Chief Counsel and Executive Director of the House Judiciary Committee and Chief Deputy District Attorney of Cumberland County.  Mr. Schwoyer also served as Chairman of the Cumberland County Victims of Crime Act Policy Board and in 2004 was honored for his efforts in support of crime victim services as the recipient of the Governor’s Victims Service Allied Professional Pathfinder’s Award and the Cumberland County Victim Advocacy Award.  Mr. Schwoyer is a Pennsylvania Uniform Law Commission Member where he currently serves on the ULC’s Criminal Justice Reform Monitoring Committee.  He received his B.A. in Political Science from The Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from Penn State The Dickinson School of Law.

Drew Crompton, former Commonwealth Court judge, is a member of McNees’ Public Finance & Government Services Practice Group who leverages nearly 30 years of experience in all three branches of Pennsylvania government to assist clients across multiple areas of law and government relations.  Crompton joined McNees after serving on the Commonwealth Court, where he heard administrative and civil public law cases and wrote more than 150 published and unpublished opinions that are straightforward, thoughtful and objective. He was confirmed to the position by a strong bipartisan Senate vote.  Previously, Crompton spent 26 years serving the Pennsylvania Senate. Named one of the 10 Titans in Pennsylvania by City and State Magazine, he began in the Senate Republicans’ policy office in his early 20s, quickly became former Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer’s chief counsel and departed as general counsel to the Senate Majority Caucus and chief-of-staff to former President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati in 2019. Crompton managed dozens of high profile and extensive civil and criminal litigation cases in front of the Commonwealth and Supreme Courts — including redistricting cases, the NCAA matter, budget disputes and separation of power cases, to name a few — and drafted hundreds of state statutes affecting local and state tax laws, state agencies, education, health care, transportation and business development.  He also served as chief-of-staff and counsel to Scarnati when he assumed the role of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor in 2008.  Over the course of his career, Crompton delivered speeches at hundreds of public and private forums and spoke to a large variety of media outlets on behalf of the Pennsylvania Senate – he has been quoted in over 500 news reports over the past decade. Crompton has also established extensive contacts with individuals and organizations across the Commonwealth during his career.  When he is not practicing law, the Montgomery County native coaches the Cumberland Valley Youth Basketball Association’s girls’ team and plays on the West Shore Country Club mens’ tennis team.