Kathleen D. Wilkinson, Esquire
2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Third Circuit
Profile in Professionalism: The Bencher September/October 2023
By Rebecca A. Clay
Katherine Hepburn is an unlikely role model for a lawyer. But for Kathleen Wilkinson, Esquire, seeing the 1949 movie “Adam’s Rib” as an elementary student changed her life. In the film, Hepburn and Spencer Tracy play husband-and-wife lawyers who work opposite sides of the same case. “I just thought, ‘Wow, being a lawyer is a wonderful thing to be,’” remembers Wilkinson, now a partner at the law firm Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “By high school, I definitely knew that this is what I wanted to be.”
Wilkinson’s life did not just follow in the professional footsteps of Hepburn’s star turn as a lawyer. Like Hepburn’s character, Wilkinson is also married to another lawyer, Thomas G. Wilkinson Jr., now a member at Cozen O’Connor. (See article on page 37.) “We met on the first day of law school,” she says. After earning a summa cum laude undergraduate degree in political science and secondary education from Kean College in Union, New Jersey, Wilkinson earned a law degree from Villanova University School of Law, where she was a member of the Villanova Law Review. In 2013, she received the Villanova Law Alumni Association Gerald Abraham Award for Service.
At Wilson Elser, Wilkinson specializes in complex civil litigation, often cases involving severe injury and death. “I have always been attracted to civil litigation,” she says. “In law school, my favorite classes were torts and products liability.” Part of the attraction was her torts professor, whom Wilkinson describes as looking like the professor from the 1973 movie “The Paper Chase.”
“He was a very commanding presence, with a three-piece suit and a gold watch with a chain, and he always gave very interesting hypotheticals,” she says of the professor, who was also dean of the law school. In addition to products liability, Wilkinson’s practice includes a special emphasis on medical devices and toxic torts. She also works on employment-related litigation—typically allegations of harassment and discrimination—and directors and officers liability.
When a new American Inn of Court was being formed in 2000 to honor Wilkinson’s favorite professor—Dean J. Willard O’Brien—Wilkinson was thrilled to be asked to serve on the organizing team. She went on to become the Villanova Law J. Willard O’Brien Inn’s first woman president from 2004 to 2006.
“The Inn is so kind and mentoring,” she says. “The point is helping to teach law students and young lawyers the skills they need to succeed.” In 2022, she received the Legal Excellence and Professionalism Award from the Herbert B. Cohen American Inn of Court.
In 2013, Wilkinson served as chancellor of the13,000-member Philadelphia Bar Association, the country’s oldest metropolitan bar association. In that role, she created the Chancellor’s Leadership Institute, which offers programs on mentorship and leadership training for young and diverse attorneys. In 2019, the Philadelphia Bar Association gave her the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Award, which recognizes a woman lawyer who is a leader within the legal community and a mentor to other women attorneys.
Wilkinson has also been an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and served as its president in 2021 and 2022. She lead the association’s House of Delegates to adopt the American Bar Association’s seven-point “Wellness Pledge”.
“The legal profession is one of the most stressful professions there is and has one of the highest rates of people getting depressed, abusing substances or alcohol, or just getting burned out,” notes Wilkinson, who is also a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. “It is really important to take care of ourselves.”
Wellness also goes hand in hand with civility and professionalism, Wilkinson adds, explaining that behaving calmly and professionally is a key way to lower stress. In 2018, the Pennsylvania Bar Association recognized Wilkinson’s wellness-related work by awarding her the C. Dale McClain Quality of Life/Balance Award.
How does Wilkinson enhance her own wellness? Bar association activities, she says. “Some people play sports; I do bar association work,” she laughs. “Instead of having another cup of coffee, I help other lawyers.” Of course, she does do other things, too. She enjoys spending time with her husband and their three children. She loves to take walks beside the ocean in Cape May, New Jersey. And she collects stills from the movie that launched her career. “When I was chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, I had pictures of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy enlarged poster-sized and hung them in my office,” she says. “I am ready to use them again!”
© 2023 American Inns of Court. This article was originally published in the September/October 2023 issue of The Bencher,
a bi-monthly publication of the American Inns of Court. This article,
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