Hon. Timothy K. Lewis

Former federal appeals judge Timothy K. Lewis is co-chair of Schnader’s ADR Practice Group and serves as a mediator, arbitrator, settlement counselor, and trial and appellate practitioner. Judge Lewis is a past co-chair of Schnader’s Appellate Practice Group.

Before entering private practice, Judge Lewis served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania when President George H. W. Bush elevated him to the Court of Appeals in 1992. At the time of both appointments he was the youngest federal judge in the United States. Before being appointed to the federal bench, Judge Lewis served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and as an Assistant District Attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

As a federal judge, Judge Lewis tried, decided and authored opinions in all matters that came before the federal courts, particularly in the areas of employment disputes, class actions, intellectual property, and commercial and corporate disputes. As co-chair of Schnader’s ADR practice group, he has developed a national and international ADR practice involving many of the world’s leading corporations. Judge Lewis also provides strategic counseling and conducts moot courts in various federal appellate matters in circuit courts throughout the country. Judge Lewis also handles federal and state criminal cases and corporate investigations.

News & Publications

Community & Pro Bono

The Kiski School, Board of Trustees; The Kiski School Board of Visitors; Alumni Council, former member
Boule (national post-baccalaureate fraternity of black professional men), member
Boy Scouts of America, Southwestern Pennsylvania Region, Board of Directors, former member
Pittsburgh Children’s Museum Board of Directors, former member
Imani Christian Academy, Governing Board of Directors, member
Ashley Addiction Treatment (Havre de Grace, Maryland), Board Member

Pro Bono

Judge Lewis was one of four former federal appeals judges who took the unprecedented step of filing an amicus brief on behalf of Delma Banks in the United States Supreme Court in 2003, in a case in which the court overturned the death penalty.
During the fall of 2003, Judge Lewis chaired and moderated a series of national town meetings and congressional-style hearings called by Amnesty International on the subject of “Racial Profiling, Pre- and Post-9/11.”
In December 2002, Judge Lewis served as the U.S. representative on an international faculty of judges and mediators during a U.S. AID-sponsored Mediation Roundtable in the Republic of Croatia.
In February 2008, Judge Lewis served as a Delegate to the U.S.- Russian Roundtable Conference on International Peace in Moscow, which was an outgrowth of the G-8 Summit, and delivered the opening statement on behalf of the U.S. Delegation.
Judge Lewis is a co-chair of the National Committee on the Right to Counsel, a bipartisan committee established by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the Constitution Project to review the indigent defense system throughout the nation and create consensus recommendations for necessary reforms.
Judge Lewis has filed many amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in cases ranging from the death penalty to bankruptcy matters to judicial ethics.
In 2014, Judge Lewis advised Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on the constitutionality of imposing a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania, which was adopted and implemented by the Governor.
In 2016, Judge Lewis testified before Senate Democrats on the pending nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the United States Supreme Court.

Teaching

Judge Lewis taught “Advocacy and Adjudication” as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is a former member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago School of Law.
Judge Lewis has served as a guest lecturer, moot court judge, and commencement speaker at various law schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, the Georgetown Law Center, Duquesne, Temple and Harvard.
Judge Lewis has trained Department of Justice attorneys in mediation at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina, and served as an instructor in trial advocacy at the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute.
Judge Lewis has served on the faculty of many continuing legal education programs, focusing upon appellate practice and procedure, mediation, arbitration, and employment discrimination.

Education

Duquesne University, J.D., 1980
Tufts University, B.A., 1976

Bar Admissions

Pennsylvania, 1980

Court Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Professional Affiliations

American Law Institute, member
Keep Our Republic, Pennsylvania Advisory Council
American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Honorary Fellow
College of Commercial Arbitrators, fellow
American Arbitration Association, former board and executive committee member; AAA National Task Force on Issues Related to the Arbitration of Consumer Debt Disputes, member; AAA Judicial Settlement Conference Service Panel, member; AAA Master Mediator Panel, member; Mediation Strategy Committee, AAA Council of Board Committees
CPR-International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, former board member; CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, member; National Chair of CPR Diversity Task Force; Employment-Related Mass Claims Task Force, member
The Council on Criminal Justice, Member
The Appellate Project, Advisory Board Member
The Hear Foundation, Board Member
American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), member of national board of directors
The Constitution Project, Washington, D.C., former board member; Co-chair of the National Right to Counsel Committee
Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, Member
Georgetown University Law Center Supreme Court Institute, Board of Advisors
Duquesne University School of Law, Dean’s Advisory Committee, member; Advisory Committee on the Appellate Advocacy Curriculum, member
The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Advisory Board, former member
The Peter Jennings Project for Journalism and the Constitution, former board member
House of Delegates, Pennsylvania Bar Association, former member
Edward Coke Inn of Court, former member
Allegheny County Bar Association (various committees)
Ashley Addiction Treatment (Havre de Grace, Maryland), Board Member

Other Distinctions

Judge Lewis has received many awards and honors, both as a judge and as an attorney, including:

Selected by Best Lawyers as “Lawyer of the Year” in Washington, D.C. for Mediation in 2023;
Recognition in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Administrative/Regulatory Law, Appellate Law, Arbitration, Commercial Litigation, and Mediation (2010-2023);
Selected by Best Lawyers as “Lawyer of the Year” in Washington, D.C. for Arbitration in 2015 and 2022;
Noted among “Pennsylvania Super Lawyers” for Appellate Law 2012-2013, 2019-2022*;
Recognition among 2013 “Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers” for alternative dispute resolution;
Recognition by the editors of The National Law Journal and the Legal Times as one of publication’s 2010 “Champions and Visionaries,” honoring attorneys who have gone the extra mile to enhance the business of law and ensure justice is done;
Recognition as one of the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Judges in America,” by Lawdragon magazine;
Co-Chair of the Practitioner Reading Group of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary for the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, and member of the Practitioner Reading Group for the nominations of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor;
Outstanding Director Award, given by the American Arbitration Association to a member of the organization’s Board of Directors who has distinguished themselves through their singular and outstanding efforts in furthering the Association’s mission of service and education in the field of conflict management;
Outstanding Achievement Award from Duquesne University School of Law;
Distinguished Alumni Award from The Kiski School;
Athletic Hall of Fame, The Kiski School;
Selected as one of The Legal Intelligencer’s “Diverse Attorneys of the Year” for 2015;
Pennsylvania Bar Association Minority Bar Committee Award of Achievement.

*No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

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