SENIOR JUDGE BONNIE BRIGANCE LEADBETTER
Judge Leadbetter was appointed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania by Governor Ridge in May of 1996, was elected to the Court in 1997, and was retained for an additional ten-year term in 2007. She was elected President Judge effective January 7, 2007 and served in that capacity until 2012. In 1999, she was also appointed to the Court of Judicial Discipline for a four-year term. From 1990 until she joined the Commonwealth Court, Judge Leadbetter was a shareholder in the law firm of Fineman & Bach, P.C., where she specialized in civil litigation, and also served as a Judge Pro Tempore of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (1991-96). Judge Leadbetter is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the Widener Law and Government Institute Board of Visitors, a Master of the J. Willard O’Brien American Inn of Court, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
She has taught trial and appellate advocacy in various venues, including Temple Law School’s LL.M. Program in Trial Advocacy and continuing legal education courses sponsored by the American Bar Association Appellate Judges’ Conference, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Eastern District Continuing Legal Education Committee, the Philadelphia Bar Association, and the Academy of Trial Advocacy. Judge Leadbetter previously served on the Third Circuit Lawyers’ Advisory Committee (1988-91, chair 1991), the Federal Courts Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association (1990), as a director of the Historical Society of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1990s), and as a member of that Court’s Local Rules Advisory Committee.
Before entering private practice, Judge Leadbetter was an Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia County (1971-76) and an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1976-81). She graduated in 1968 from Rice University and in 1971 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she served as Managing Editor of the Law Review. Judge Leadbetter retired in January 2016 and assumed senior judge status in February 2016.
She is married to Gary R. Leadbetter, a Montgomery County attorney, and they have two daughters and three grandchildren.
SENIOR JUDGE MARY HANNAH LEAVITT
Judge Leavitt was commissioned to the Commonwealth Court on December 20, 2001, and took the oath of office on January 7, 2002. In 2011, she was retained for another ten-year term. She was elected President Judge in 2016, becoming the 8th President Judge. In 2022 Judge Leavitt became a senior judge and also received the James S. Bowman award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association for her outstanding contribution to administrative law.
Prior to taking office, Judge Leavitt was a shareholder in the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll where she was a member of the firm’s Litigation Section and Chair of the Insurance Regulatory Law Group. There her practice focused upon administrative law, appellate practice and insurance regulatory law. This legal specialty began with her appointment as Assistant Attorney General in 1978 and assignment to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. She worked at the Insurance Department until 1987, ending her service there as Chief Counsel, appointed by Governor Dick Thornburgh. During her work in both the public and private sectors, she served as counsel of record in numerous appeals in both state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
In the course of her legal career, Judge Leavitt has made numerous presentations on insurance, regulatory, and administrative law issues. She has published several articles in the Dickinson Law Review, taught statewide legal seminars sponsored by organizations as diverse as the American Statistical Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and has addressed the Anti-Trust Section of the American Bar Association on the state action defense. She has taught the insurance business course at Pennsylvania State University, School of Business Administration, Capitol Campus.
Judge Leavitt received her B.A. from Connecticut College (1969), her M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (1972), and her J.D. from Dickinson School of Law (1978), where she was an editor of the Dickinson Law Review.
Judge Leavitt lives in Dauphin County with her husband, John P. Krill, Jr. They have three children.