Carlucci Accomplishment Noted

Williamsport Sun-Gazette features soon to be PBA President Bill Carlucci on front page:

City attorney first in more than a century to head state bar association

By Katie Prince, Sun-Gazette Staff

It has been 103 years since a Lycoming County attorney has headed up the Pennsylvania Bar Association, but on Thursday, the gavel will return to the area when a city lawyer is installed as president.

William P. Carlucci, a partner at Elion, Wayne, Grieco, Carlucci, Shipman and Irwin, 125 E. Third St., sat down with the Sun-Gazette recently to discuss what he hopes to do in the position, the direction in which he feels the field is moving, and what he thinks lawyers should be doing with their spare time.

Just more than half of the state’s roughly 52,000 attorneys belong to the state bar association, and as president, Carlucci said, he will be expected to “carry out policy and speak for the members.”

The post will keep him busy, and Carlucci said he anticipates that he will spend much of his time on the road.

From speaking to lawyers’ groups to testifying before state legislators, Carlucci explained that the position demands not only that he advocate for attorneys, but also that he make sure the members are getting all they can out of the group.

To that end, Carlucci said, he plans to focus on six issues, “only two of which will you find interesting,” he said modestly.

A middle-aged, well-to-do attorney, Carlucci lives up to the prototype of a president of a vast lawyers’ group. One of his first goals, he claimed, is to work so that leaders in the future look a bit less like him.

“I want to see more women, more minorities,” he said, noting that the mandate may mean more coming from someone who has nothing to gain by the effort.

The association has its fair share of women and minority members, he said, but the leadership positions are traditionally filled by white males.

But his biggest goal, he said, it so “re-energize” attorneys and jumpstart the civic involvement of lawyers.

“Do you know what percent of the state legislature is made up of former lawyers? Eighteen,” he said. “That means that 82 percent of the people writing our laws are not lawyers.”

The bar association takes positions on specific pieces of legislation and will continue to, Carlucci said, but the bigger goal has nothing to do with which side of the aisle one falls on.

Of the 54 people in the room when the Constitution was signed, he said, 34 were lawyers. One half of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were lawyers, he added.

“It was different then than today,” he explained. “Two hundred years ago, lawyers had a significant responsibility, both professionally and civically ... They were public citizens, expected to speak out against tyranny.”

Now, he said, many lawyers think it’s just a job, and “when they walk out of the office, they’re not a lawyer anymore. I don’t see it that way.”

A few among Carlucci’s six aforementioned goals fall into the category of attempting to extend the service arm of the association, whether it be through the young lawyers’ division, through volunteerism and non-profit work or through elected office.

“Lawyers need to rededicate themselves to public service. I want to encourage (lawyers) to be involved in civic life,” he said, “to serve on every level of government — school boards, hospital boards, local, state and federal government.”

Attorneys used to be involved in all three branches of government, he said, but lately the trend is involvement in just the judicial branch.

People of all walks of life have the potential to bring something to government, Carlucci said, but and passion for and knowledge of the law is indispensable.

Carlucci has been practicing law since 1979. A graduate of Lycoming College and Temple University School of Law, he lives with his wife Christine in the city with their children Ben Carlucci and Laura and Lynn Yeager.

Carlucci volunteers for Loyalsock Fire Co. and serves as a lector for the Church of Saint Ann. A former president of Loyalsock Kiwanis Club and Kiwanian of the Year in 1995, he also is active in the Boy Scouts of America.

In 1992, he served as the president for the Lycoming Law Association. Any members of the state bar association also are members of the county organization.

Shortly after his tenure as president of the county organization ended, Carlucci said his father-in-law introduced him to a past president of the state bar association, who encouraged him to become involved at the state level.

That involvement led to the association’s Board of Governors’ nominating committee in 2002 and placed him in line for the presidency. He will take office at a Pittsburgh convention this week.

Section: News Date Posted: 5/2/2005

As appearing in Monday - May 2, 2005 edition of The Sun-Gazette