Overview
Faculty
Wesley R. Payne IV, Esq.
Mr. Payne is a partner in the litigation department at White and Williams, LLP, in Philadelphia. He is also the immediate past chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee, chair of the Pro Bono Committee and co-chair of the Partners’ Compensation Committee. He primarily focuses his practice in the areas of insurance defense, bad faith, extra-contractual damages, disability and coverage matters. Mr. Payne is a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America by Best Lawyers, and an AV Preeminent peer-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell. He has over 35 years of experience representing insurance carriers and insureds in first- and third-party litigation matters. Mr. Payne has successfully defended wrongful death, extra-contractual damages, product liability, asbestos, toxic tort, environmental, mass tort, commercial auto, construction, insurance coverage, disability, ERISA and general liability cases. Prior to joining White and Williams, LLP, he managed an inhouse litigation office for a major insurance carrier. Mr. Payne is licensed to practice before all state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and Maryland, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has written and lectured on bad faith, extra-contractual damages, civil litigation and uninsured and underinsured motorist issues. Mr. Payne is a past Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, a past Zone 1 Governor and Minority-At-Large Governor of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, past president of the Board of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN), past president of the Conference of County Bar Leaders, past president of the Board of the Bethesda Project, a member of the Board of Directors of the Homeless Advocacy Project, a past co-president of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group (PDLG) and a past president of the Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel (PADC). He was recognized by the Legal Intelligencer as an “Unsung Hero” for his dedication and service to the pro bono community. Mr. Payne is the recipient of The Honorable William F. Hall Award, the Huey R. Burkett Service Award, the Multicultural Leadership Award, and most recently named Defense Attorney of the Year by the Pennsylvania Defense Institute. He was also named as one of the “Top 60 African American Attorneys in Philadelphia” by the Philadelphia Tribune. Mr. Payne has been selected to City & State Pennsylvania’s 2022 Law Power 100 (39) and City & States Philadelphia’s Power 100 (91) lists. He serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Payne received his B.A., cum laude, from Washington and Lee University and his J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he served as the president of the Student Bar Association.
Timothy Murray, Esq.
Mr. Murray is the lead author of the Corbin family of contract law texts. Corbin on Contracts has been cited by judicial opinions across America in excess of 16,000 times). He is the author of Corbin on Contracts revised volume 1 (Rev. ed. 2018), revised volume 15 (Rev. ed. 2020), revised volume 8 (Rev. ed. publication pending), Corbin on Contract Drafting (publication pending), and Corbin on Contracts: Force Majeure and Impossibility of Performance Resulting from Covid-19. He is the co-author of Corbin on Contracts Desk Edition (2021), Corbin on Pennsylvania Contracts (2018), Corbin on Ohio Contracts (2019), Corbin on Illinois Contracts (2020), and Corbin on New York Contracts (2022). He writes the biannual supplements to the Corbin treatise. He has written extensively on contract law matters and has conducted contract law seminars or webinars for, among others, the American Law Institute, LexisNexis, the New York State Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. He serves on the editorial advisory board for Lexis Practice Advisor Journal. Mr. Murray has represented numerous businesses and individuals in all manner of contract transactional matters and disputes, including General Motors Corporation, Bayer, Covestro, Avery Dennison, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Alcoa, Nissan North America, companies of the Marmon Group, Mazda Motors of America, General Reinsurance, Lanxess Corporation, TWA, Kawasaki Motors, Nova Chemicals, and Electrolux. Mr. Murray helped to rewrite the suggested Pennsylvania jury instructions for contract law. In its introduction to the 2017 supplement for jury instructions, the Civil Instructions Subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee for Proposed Standard Jury Instructions wrote: “The subcommittee sincerely thanks Timothy Murray, Esquire, of Murray, Hogue & Lannis in Pittsburgh, who has generously contributed countless hours of his expertise to rewriting the contracts instructions and subcommittee notes. A national expert in contract law, Mr. Murray writes the biannual supplements to the 15-volume treatise, Corbin on Contracts (Lexis-Nexis). In addition, Mr. Murray is a Lexis Practice Advisor, and has served since 2011 as one of Lexis’s pioneer authors in this platform, which is designed to provide practical guidance for transactional practitioners. Lastly, Mr. Murray has lectured extensively about contract law.” Mr. Murray is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He received both his B.A., summa cum laude (1981) and his J.D. (1984) from the University of Pittsburgh.
Steven M. Richman, Esq.
Mr. Richman is a member of Clark Hill PLC, based in Princeton and New York, with a national and international litigation and arbitration practice including representation of foreign and domestic companies in dispute resolution and contract matters. He holds a law degree from New York University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1980, Order of the Coif, and a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Drew University. He is the author of the ABA book, Photography Law Handbook, and has written and spoken extensively in the areas of international law, corporate social responsibility, contracts, litigation and arbitration, and professional responsibility. He is Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association’s 17,000-member Section of International Law, a Section delegate in the ABA House of Delegates, as well as an ABA Liaison to the UIA and the United Nations. Within the International Bar Association, he is an officer of Bar Issues Commission. He is a former member of the National District Export Council Board and appointed to the New Jersey District Export Council by the United States Secretary of Commerce.
Lisa R. Jacobs, Esq.
Ms. Jacobs is a partner in the Philadelphia office of Stradley Ronon Stevens Young LLP. She represents clients in domestic and international transactional matters including complex corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, institutional and private equity financing, private placements and structuring and governance issues with a particular emphasis on the food and beverage and healthcare industries. Ms. Jacobs is a Commissioner of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), currently serving as chair of the ULC’s Executive Committee, as well as on several drafting committees, including the Amendments to Uniform Unincorporated Organizations Acts (Chair of the drafting committee currently updating those Acts), the Limited Liability Company Protected Series Act, the Employee and Student Online Privacy Protection Act, and the Canadian Money Judgments Registration Act (Chair). She is a member, and current Chair, of the ULC-ABA Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Unincorporated Organization Acts. She also chaired the ULC’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Ms. Jacobs has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2009 and is active in both the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association, currently serving as Chair of the ABA’s Uniform Law Committee. She also is Chair of Pennsylvania’s Title 15 Drafting Committee, which recently facilitated Pennsylvania’s adoption of Act 122 (a robust update to the Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law), which was signed into law on November 3, 2022. Ms. Jacobs is also a member and current Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Pennsylvania Department of State Corporations Bureau (by appointment of the Secretary of the Commonwealth). In 2019, she was also elected to membership in the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. She also was a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Task Force on the Uniform Unincorporated Association Acts and the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, working to adopt the ULC Acts for enactment in Pennsylvania. Those Acts became effective in 2017 and 1993, respectively. Her civic involvement includes her service as a member of the Board of Directors of Republic First Bancorp, and the Greater Philadelphia YMCA (serving as Vice Chair), the seventh largest YMCA operator in the country. She is committed to pro bono work, representing The Museum of Contemporary Art – Chicago, the Museum of the American Revolution (Philadelphia), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and Liberty Fire Engine Company No. 1 of Spring City, Pennsylvania. Ms. Jacobs has written a number of articles and is a frequent lecturer on business organizations, corporate finance, transaction structuring and related business issues. She currently is a Lecturer in the Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she teaches a course on International Business Negotiations. Ms. Jacobs received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics, cum laude, from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and graduated with honors from the Villanova University School of Law, where she was a member of the editorial board of the Villanova Law Review.
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