Uniontown native receives award
A Uniontown native, now a partner in a Philadelphia law firm, has received an award honoring attorneys who made contributions to the state’s legal community in 2008. Michael Pratt was among the recipients of the Pennsylvania Diversity Attorney of the Year Awards, given by The Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania Law Weekly and the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group. Pratt, a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP, has a national practice concentrating in commercial, product liability and mass tort litigation. He represents clients in a range of complex commercial and product liability matters involving contracts, pharmaceutical drugs and devices, and toxic torts.
As the Philadelphia Bar Association’s chancellor in 2008, Pratt pushed the bar to institutionalize support for diversity in the profession. At his behest, the association hired its first diversity director. He also was instrumental in the inclusion of programs on diverse workforces in the legal profession in the association’s leadership retreat and its annual Bench-Bar Conference. Additionally, Pratt inaugurated a diversity award, and started a series of training workshops designed to help lawyers enhance their professional skills to advance their careers.
Pratt was born in Grindstone, and moved to Uniontown as a child. He is a 1977 graduate of Uniontown Area High School.
Pratt is a member of the board of trustees at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, and a member of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, Inc. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in economics and English from W&J and received his law degree from Harvard University School of Law in 1985.