On Jan. 23, Penn State's Dickinson School of Law appointed U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III and James L. Patton Jr., chairman of Delaware law firm Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, to its board of counselors.
A 1980 graduate of The Dickinson School of Law, Jones was appointed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002. A native of Pottsville, Pa., Jones began his legal career as a clerk to Guy Bowe, president judge of Schuylkill County. He then joined Dolbin & Cori, where he later became a named partner. In 1986, Jones began his private practice, John Jones & Associates.
Jones served as co-chair for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge’s labor and industry transition team. In 1995, he was nominated by Ridge to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (LCB) and later was appointed as chairman, a position he held until his appointment to the bench. Jones was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people in 2006 for his landmark decision in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover School District case where he ruled that it was unconstitutional to teach intelligent design within a public school science curriculum.
Patton is a 1983 graduate of The Dickinson School of Law and, in addition to serving as chairman of Young Conaway, he is a partner in its bankruptcy and corporate restructuring section. He is nationally recognized for his representation of large troubled companies and his involvement in complex asbestos bankruptcies. Patton has been ranked as a leading bankruptcy/restructuring lawyer in Chambers USA -- America's Leading Business Lawyers since its inception. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and chair of the American Bar Association’s Claims Trading Subcommittee. He also is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and serves as chairman of the Chapter 11 committee of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the Delaware Bar Association.
The Penn State Dickinson Law School Board of Counselors provides advice and strategic guidance to the law school and offers input on external relations from a broad range of important constituencies. The current board members include Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and the first U.S. secretary of homeland security; D. Brooks Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals judge; Sylvia Rambo, U.S. District Court judge; Lewis Katz, businessman and philanthropist; H. Laddie Montague Jr., board chair and noted corporate lawyer; and Judith Nocito, Alcoa assistant general counsel.