John Soroko

John J. Soroko has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Duane Morris since 2008. A study of the firm's culture, and the firm's emphasis on collaboration, appears in the 2013 Harvard Business School case study entitled, "Collaborating for Growth: Duane Morris in a Turbulent Legal Sector." Mr. Soroko practices in the area of litigation, including appellate law, with particular emphasis on general business, corporate and securities matters, including the defense of securities and other class actions. He also practices in the areas of professional liability for lawyers, real estate and probate and fiduciary litigation. Among many significant matters that he has handled in his career, on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants, was his representation of Pennsylvania judges before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in which he secured a ruling that declared as unconstitutional legislation which had repealed an increase in judicial salaries for over 1,100 Pennsylvania judges across the Commonwealth. Mr. Soroko is listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as one of two "Eminent Practitioners" in Pennsylvania for litigation, and as one of the "Leading Lawyers" in Pennsylvania in the areas of both general commercial litigation and securities litigation. On April 10, 2014, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett appointed Mr. Soroko to a four-year term as a judge on the eight-member Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline, where he is one of two lawyer-members of the Court, and where he presently serves as President Judge. U.S. Senator Pat Toomey appointed Mr. Soroko as Co-Chair of the Judicial Nomination Advisory Panel for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to review and recommend nominations for federal judgeships. Mr. Soroko also served as Chair of the Advisory Panel in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to review and recommend the appointment of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Soroko also earlier served as a member of the transition team for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. Mr. Soroko was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He is active in civic affairs, including being Co-Director of the William B. Dietrich Foundation, a Trustee of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia, a member of the CEO Council for Growth of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, a Director of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Chair of the Corporate Executive Board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was formerly a director (2011 to 2015) of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. Mr. Soroko is a 1977 graduate of New York University School of Law and a 1973 graduate of Haverford College. He has also completed a program of executive education at Harvard Business School. He has been a guest lecturer on topics relating to the business of law at Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School and New York University's Stern School of Business. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of Harvard Law School's Center on the Legal Profession. Mr. Soroko is also admitted as a foreign lawyer in Singapore.