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FCBA Remembers Richard Bushman
Members of the Franklin County Bar Association gathered on November 10th in Courtroom One to remember and celebrate Rick Bushman.
Many attorneys had fond remembrances of Rick to share. Everyone agreed that Rick loved to tell jokes. Steve Kulla submitted this limerick to honor him.
There once was an attorney from Spring Run,
Who thought the practice of law should be fun,
He'd start off each meeting with a joke of ill taste,
but by the end of the session, your debt he'd erase.
So laugh with 'ol Rick as he's kicked the proverbial bucket,
Knowing he's regaling St. Pete about the man from Nantucket
You may read his memorial resolution and remembrances by clicking
HERE.
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Save the Date
The swearing-in ceremony of Judge Sponseller will be held on Monday, January 4th in Courtroom 1 at 9 a.m.
More information will be coming out soon.
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FCBA to Admit Five New Members
The Admissions ceremony will held on Friday, December 4th. Scheduled to join the FCBA are Jessica Weaver, Mooney & Associates; Erich Hawbaker; Clark Stiteler, District Attorney's Office; Daniel Conlon, Salzmann Hughes, P.C.; and Zachary Rice, Law Clerk to the Senior Judges.
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Planter Volunteers Needed
The FCBA Women's Club will be decorating the Courthouse Planters for the holidays. Please join us Saturday, December 5th at 9 a.m. to add fresh ever greens, decorations and lights to the planters. If we have 5-6 volunteers the project should take about half an hour.
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Surprise Party for
William Vandrew
You are invited to help celebrate the exemplary career of our Franklin County Clerk of Courts, William E. Vandrew, as he embarks on the next phase of his career, retirement.
Friday, December 11, 2015
1 - 3 p.m.
3rd Floor Jury Assembly Room
Franklin County Courthouse
Let's try to keep this a surprise.
There will be refreshments and a card box of you care to express your congratulations and well wishes.
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Holiday Open House
Justice Eakin and staff c
ordially invite you to share the s
pirit of the Holiday Season.
Thursday December 17, 2015 2:00 - 6: 00 p.m.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
4720 Gettysburg Road, Suite 405
Mechanicsburg, PA
(717) 731-0461
RSVP not necessary
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Franklin County Legal Services Survey
Franklin County Legal Services is conducting a survey to help us best meet needs in Franklin and Fulton Counties of Pennsylvania. If you could please take a moment to answer JUST 4 questions, it would be most appreciated.
Please click on the following link to the take the SHORT survey:
Click HERE
Thank you so much for your assistance!
Gloria M. Keener
Executive Director
Franklin County Legal Services
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Free PIRC Training
Access to Public Benefits and Services for Immigrant Survivors: Options for Survivors of Violence, Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 11AM-1PM
United Way Community Room
800 East King Street York, PA 17403
During this two-hour training participants will learn the eligibility criteria for obtaining public benefits and services for low income victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Participants will be able to identify the different immigrant benefit classifications and strategize which victim based immigration remedy will be most beneficial to survivors in need of public benefits and services. The range of public benefits and services open to all undocumented survivors will be discussed. The training will highlight the importance of early application for immigration relief and will discuss the additional access to state and federal benefits and services that flows to survivors having a pending or approved VAWA self-petition, VAWA cancelation of removal, U visa, or T visa case. Step by step guides, list of resources and screening tools will be provided enabling advocates and attorneys to navigate the complex systems of health care, housing, education, TANF, child care and other benefits. And of course, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and troubleshoot issues with two of the nation's leading experts on public benefit eligibility for immigrant victims.
The training will be presented by Leslye Orloff, Director of the National Immigrant Women's Advocacy Project, and Benish Anver, Policy Staff Attorney at NIWAP. The National Immigrant Women's Advocacy Project addresses the needs of immigrant women, immigrant children and immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other crimes by advocating for reforms in law, policy and practice. NIWAP is a national provider of training, legal and social science research, policy development, and technical assistance to advocates, attorneys, pro bono law firms, law schools, universities, law enforcement, prosecutors, social service and health care providers, justice system personnel, and other professionals who work with immigrant women, children and crime victims. You can read the trainers' bios here.
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Press Releases, Memos and Important Notices
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Upcoming PBI CLEs at FCBA
Please see below for the current list of PBI CLEs we are hosting.
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Member News
* Sherry at Richard Bushman's office has old law books from the 1800s and 1900s available. If you are interested in these books please call 717-349-7657.
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Newsletter items deadline
The deadline to submit items for The Causeway is the 20th of each month.
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"Since our last chat..."
"Since our last chat..." is a periodic column in The Causeway by Bar member Barb Townsend.
In between holidays, end of the year business, shopping and weather changes, I was thankful that I had gotten a chance earlier in the fall to catch up with some of our colleagues. My next assignment as Granny Nanny is fast approaching, we are all suitably stuffed and the High Holy Day of the First Day of Deer Season adds to the mayhem of this time of year.
 I had a chance to catch up with Carrie M. Bowmaster, Esq., which was no small feat as she assumes her role as Deputy Director for Operations of MidPenn Legal Services along with managing the York Office. Carrie started here in Franklin County before there was a Mid Penn as an employee of Franklin County Legal Services. If I recall correctly, she had been in practice, albeit a brief two years, in Dauphin County prior to joining Mahesh K. Rao, Esq., in the aid of the Franklin County indigent in January, 1996. Carrie proved a dedicated champion of her clients, but decided to check out the world of the paying client with a stint with Lloyd Reichard, Esq., in 2002. She quickly returned to Franklin County Legal Services. In 2006, she attempted to escape her calling a second time by joining Thomas J. Trgovac, Esq., in private practice in 2006. Tom was moving to the corporate world, so in July, 2007, Carrie joined Mid Penn Legal Services as the manager of both Chambersburg and the Gettysburg offices.
Carrie graduated from Lockhaven High School, now Central Mountain High School. She headed to Pennsylvania State University, securing her degree in History in 1990. Carrie is a graduate of Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg Campus, receiving her juris doctorate in 1993.
Carrie and her wife, Teresa, are the parents of twins Cecelia and Chase, now age 10. To add to the fun, Carrie and Teresa agreed to take care of two other children in 2013 on weekends. To no one's surprise, Carrie added Amaia, now age 5, and X'zavior, now age 2, to the family starting in February, 2014. When not appearing in court, managing personnel, providing sustenance and love to four children, dealing with a case load, and traveling around South Central Pennsylvania, Carrie likes reading and coaching baseball. She's also done a stint at basketball. Unfortunately, Carrie is now primarily centered in York.
I asked Carrie for one of those incidents to which our profession is only too prone. She related the case of the client who wouldn't stop talking in the court room. Carrie turned to the client and asked the client to stop. As the client continued to talk, Carrie instructed the client to just be quiet. The client turned to her, (note this is an indigent client), and announced: "I'm going to hire a real attorney." At this declaration, the bench quickly noted: "Attorney Bowmaster, I think you've been fired." Those of us who have practiced with Carrie know that client made another error to compound the error which originally brought the client into court.
 Another local attorney who has had experience with the non paying client is Laura Rebecca Ables, Esq., who had been engaged in indigent defense work in 2000. Becky admitted that her days as a defense attorney ended in 2004, but the work helped pay her overhead. She remarked that she had an experience in the spring of 2001, when there were only twenty-five cases on the criminal docket. She ended up with three cases in three days. (She acknowledged that she survived by being assigned to one judge and achieving two acquittals).
I had no idea that Becky's first language is Spanish. She did not really begin to learn English until she was four years old. I should have guessed when she revealed that she had graduated from Lincoln High School in Buenos Aires. More properly, that is Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln, an American International School, in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She quickly explained that her parents were missionaries. Their rotation schedule was four years in the field and one year in the US. Becky spent most of her youth in Equador. Her parents noted that her older sister, then five, and Becky, then four, were not ready for school because the children didn't speak English. After that realization, they only spoke English at home.
Throughout Becky's early years, she remained in Equador attending American International Schools. When she was ready for Ninth Grade, Becky was enrolled in high school in Birmingham, Alabama. She remained there until her parents' next assignment to Buenos Aires. She did return to the US for college, earning a degree in sociology and Spanish at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. From there, she spent time at the University of Madrid to study theater and literature. She returned to Birmingham, working as a paralegal, until she married her college sweetheart. That moved her to Georgia, where she was employed at a law firm that concentrated in real estate law. Although she was promoted to law firm administration, while living in Atlanta, Becky pursued her legal education. Her juris doctorate is from Georgia State University College of Law. Immediately after graduation, she headed to Cartersville, Georgia where she opened her solo practice in 2000. Along the way, her marriage ended.
Becky's best friend, Brenda, from her life in Equador had started her career as an Army nurse. Brenda was stationed at Indian Town Gap and moved to Mechanicsburg. Brenda is now an RN at Carlisle Hospital. Becky's divorce granted, Brenda and her husband invited Becky to move to South Central Pennsylvania. Wanting a fresh start, Becky moved to Carlisle in 2004. She secured work at Salzmann Hughes as a real estate paralegal in Carlisle while waiting for her Pennsylvania license. She moved to Shippensburg in 2005 and is now fully licensed, assigned to Chambersburg and concentrating in real estate related matters.
Becky's daughter, Janie Raye Miller, from her second marriage, will shortly be eight. Becky has enrolled the child at the Montessori School in Chambersburg.
Becky loves to listen to the interpreters in the court room. No one would guess that she's fluent in Spanish as the cadence of her language and accent is standard American. This she found very useful when she was a defense attorney.
I secured entry to the Firm the other day. I met some of the newest members of the Firm. Zackary M. Rice, Esq., is a graduate of Widener University School of Law after securing a degree from Lebanon Valley in political science in 2012. Zack is from Perry County, loves reading about the Civil War, and plays golf, tennis and sandlot baseball. He's a follower of Penn State football. When queried, he admitted that he plays baseball with a group of 'washed up jocks'.
Alana Healey Burke, Esq., is a Villanova graduate from Michigan. She attended Loyola in Chicago, majoring in history. Her current read is Erik Larson, Devil in the White City, a well researched story of a serial killer at the Chicago's World Fair in 1893...history and murder, sounds like an attorney's read. Alana loves to bake, read and attend the ballet. The Firm is now well situated in the offices formerly occupied by the Court Reporters, which immeasurably improves the law clerks access to each other.
See you at the annual meeting!
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Calendar of Events
Admissions Ceremony
Fri., December 4
Annual Meeting
Fri., December 4
YLD Holiday Party
Thurs., December 10
CLOSED, Christmas
Thurs.-Fri., Dec. 24-25
CLOSED, New Year's Day
Fri., January 1
Swearing-In Ceremony
Mon., January 4
YLD Meeting
Fri., January 8
Board of Directors Meeting
Fri., January 15
YLD Meeting
Fri., February 5
Conference of County Bar Leaders
Thurs. - Sat., Feb. 25 - 27
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Visit the Franklin County Bar Association's website.
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The Bar is on Facebook! "Like" the Franklin County Bar Association page for event reminders and news of interest to the bar and see photos of member activities.
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Follow the Franklin County Bar Association on Twitter.
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Contact the Bar
Amelia Ambrose
Executive Director
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