Peter Neeson (r.) with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Dean Emeritus of the Boston University School of Law Ronald A. Cass (far left) at a reception for the National Judicial College in the Upper Great Hall of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Peter J. Neeson, a partner in the Philadelphia office of Rawle & Henderson LLP, spoke at the National Judicial College (NJC) reception in the Upper Great Hall of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 2014. The featured speaker at the reception was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Peter is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Judicial College. The Board visited Washington to hold its Fall 2014 meeting and to promote the NJC’s judicial education opportunities in the legal community.

“We were fortunate to obtain the use of facilities here at the U.S. Supreme Court and to have U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speak at our reception,” Peter said, addressing the attendees in the Upper Great Hall. “It is fitting that the College hold an event here at the Supreme Court since the NJC would not likely exist if it were not for a former U.S. Supreme Court Justice.  It was former Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark who chaired the commission that recommended that judicial education be formalized which led to the formation of the National Judicial College in 1963.”

A practicing trial attorney for 35 years, Peter is Chair of Rawle & Henderson’s Environmental Law and Toxic Tort section. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.S. in Aero Space Mechanical Engineering in 1970 and from the University of Miami (cum laude) with a J.D. in 1978. Peter has been involved in numerous toxic tort matters in multi-district litigation and class action cases in both state and federal courts, including benzene, underground storage tank, silica, orthopedic bone screw and asbestos litigation, among others. He has been selected as National Coordinating Counsel in the FRT, asbestos, latex glove and PPA drug litigation. In 2007, he served as Chair of TIPS (Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association). In 2012 Peter received the prestigious ABA/TIPS James K. Carroll Leadership Award, in part for his efforts in founding the TIPS Trial and Leadership Academies. He has been rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer.