News
Teresa Ficken Sachs Named Counsel to Pennsylvania Supreme Court
News Article
September 18, 2019
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today announced the appointment of Teresa Ficken Sachs as Counsel to the Court effective January 2020.
“Terry is an experienced trial lawyer and accomplished appellate advocate, including many appearances before our Court,” said Chief Justice Saylor. “Her professional background will serve the Court well in her role as Counsel.”
As Counsel to the Supreme Court, Sachs will provide assistance and advice to the Court on a broad range of issues, primarily with respect to non-adjudicative matters. She will also serve as the Court’s liaison to the Board of Law Examiners, the Continuing Legal Education Board, the Disciplinary Board, the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts Board, and the Lawyers Fund for Client Security Board.
She will replace Geoff Moulton when he assumes his role as court administrator of Pennsylvania in January.
“As an attorney in private practice for more than three decades, I have tremendous respect for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and its work on behalf of all Pennsylvanians,” Sachs said.
“I am grateful to the members of the Court for the opportunity to use my private sector experience to support the work of this busy Court.”
Sachs has more than 35 years of experience as a civil litigator, including 20 as a trial attorney.
Sachs currently serves as shareholder and co-chair of the appellate and post-trial practice group at Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in Philadelphia.
During her tenure in private practice, Sachs has argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, and before all levels of the state and federal appellate judiciary in Pa including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Superior and Commonwealth Courts.
# # #
EDITOR’S NOTE - Please see attached bio for Teresa Ficken Sachs.
Teresa Ficken Sachs, Esquire
Ms. Sachs is Co-Chair of the Appellate Advocacy and Post-Trial Practice Group at Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.
She represents insured and self-insured clients, as well as insurance carriers and insurance industry groups, on a variety of appellate cases and issues.
In addition to handling all aspects of post-trial and appellate practice, Ms. Sachs works with trial counsel both before and during trial to ensure that potential appellate issues are properly raised and protected for review.
Prior to performing appellate work on a full-time basis, Ms. Sachs litigated civil matters for over twenty years at all levels of the Pennsylvania state and federal courts and in private arbitration, including the litigation of complex insurance coverage cases at the trial and appellate levels, and many cases involving uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
Ms. Sachs received her B.S., cum laude, in pharmacy from the University of Connecticut in 1981 and her J.D., cum laude, from Villanova University School of Law in 1984.
She has been a frequent lecturer and author for more than 25 years on insurance-related topics, and more recently, on topics relating to appellate practice. She has written and lectured for the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, the Dispute Resolution Institute, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and the conference of Pennsylvania Trial Judges. She also is regularly asked to represent the interests of insurance industry groups as amici curiae before the Pennsylvania Superior and Supreme Courts.
She is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, a member, past President and current Amicus Curiae Committee chair for the Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel, and a member of the Pennsylvania Defense Institute as well as past Co-Chair of its Amicus Curiae Committee and its Appellate Courts Committee.
In 2013, 2018 and 2019, Ms. Sachs has served as Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention, and has been a Commission member since 2012. She is a Director of the Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia, and has also served on the Bar Association’s Long-Range Advisory Council and Code of Judicial Conduct Task Force.
For the last twelve years, Ms. Sachs has been named as one of the top 5% of Pennsylvania lawyers recognized by her peers as a Pennsylvania Superlawyer as published by American Lawyer Media and Philadelphia Magazine.
She was named by Philadelphia Business Journal as one of its 2017 "Women of Distinction," by the Philadelphia Inquirer as one of its 2018 “Influencers of the Law,” was named as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Pennsylvania for 2018 and 2019, and was named to the 2018 and 2019 editions of Best Lawyers in America.
In 2018 she was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to a three-year term on its Appellate Court Procedural Rules Committee.