Stephen J. Harmelin, Attorney

Managing Partner, Dilworth Paxson LLP.  Mr. Harmelin has over 35 years of experience in corporate law and business representations that focus on advising Boards of Directors of public and privately-held companies, financial transactions, mergers, acquisitions, governmental and non-profit governance issues. He is a graduate of Harvard law School and served as a White House Aide in the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

He has been consistently chosen by a survey of his fellow lawyers to be listed in the publication, The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Harmelin lectures on law firm management, corporate reorganizations and other financial transactions. For three years he served as Chairman of the Board of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, Publicker Industries, Inc. In addition, he serves on the Board of numerous privately-held companies, including The Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard, and served as an executive and Chairman of Confab Inc., one of the Philadelphia area's largest employers.

He served from 1989 to 2002 by appointment of the Governor as a Commissioner on the Board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. This Authority developed and operates the $500 million Convention Center opened in Philadelphia in 1993. He also served in 1992 by unanimous vote of the Pennsylvania Democratic and Republican Senate and House leadership as General Counsel to the Legislative Reapportionment Commission. This Commission had the responsibility for redistricting the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania following the 1990 Census. He was appointed in 2001 to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals Task Force on the selection of lead counsel in class action lawsuits. In 2004 he received the Center City Association's law enforcement award for his undercover work with the FBI in recovering an original copy of the Bill of Rights missing for over 138 years. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Replansky Award given each year to that business lawyer whose professional and civic accomplishments justify career recognition.

Mr. Harmelin is engaged in various other civic and charitable activities. He founded the Philadelphia Constitution Foundation which owned one of the world's most extensive libraries on international Constitutions. Projects of the Foundation included supporting the exhibition of an original Magna Carta in Philadelphia as well as providing guidance to the Constitutional Commission of the Russian Republic. He is a member of the Board and Treasurer of the Atlantic Legal Foundation which advocates in support of personal and property rights when unreasonably compromised by government regulation and against the use of junk science in the Courts. Mr. Harmelin also serves on the Board of The Barnes Foundation which houses the most important collection of French Impressionist Paintings outside of France, and is General Counsel to the National Constitution Center, a $200 million project that opened in Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park on July 4, 2003. He has served as Treasurer for the election committees of U.S. Senator Arlen Specter during the last four election campaigns.