News
Allegheny County Jurists Named to New Leadership Positions
News Article
December 23, 2018
Two Allegheny County judges have been named to leadership positions within the Pennsylvania court system.
Effective Dec. 24, Judge Kim Berkeley Clark has been appointed president judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County for a term of five years.
Judge Clark was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County by then Gov. Tom Ridge in 1999 and subsequently elected to a full 10-year term. Prior to her appointment as president judge, Clark served as administrative judge of the family division as well as supervising judge of juvenile court.
Prior to her appointment to the Common Pleas Court, Clark served in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office as assistant and deputy district attorney, prosecuting cases involving child abuse, homicide and sexual assault.
Lauded as a trailblazer who has earned a national acclaim for her work with children and families, Judge Clark has received multiple honors including the Homer S. Brown Award from the NAACP, the William H. Moore Award for Excellence and most recently received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence by the National Center for State Courts – the highest honor bestowed to a state court judge.
Judge Clark currently serves as chair of the Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission and has served in leadership posts with the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. She is also a member of numerous civic and legal organizations. She received her undergraduate degree in French from Tennessee State University and her J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law.
In addition, effective Jan. 2, 2019 Judge Jill E. Rangos has been named as administrative judge of the Criminal Division in Allegheny for an initial term of three years.
Judge Rangos was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County in 2003 by then Gov. Edward G. Rendell and then elected to serve a full 10-year term. Rangos has served in the family division, juvenile section and criminal divisions of the court. She is the supervising judge of both Allegheny County grand juries and serves on the Sex Offenses specialty court.
Prior to her tenure on the court, Rangos served as a law clerk in the Federal District Court for Judge Maurice B. Cohill, Jr. and as counsel at Thorp, Reed & Armstrong and Babst Calland Clements & Zomnir in Pittsburgh.
She is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Allegheny County Bar Foundation and the Women’s Bar Association, on which she served previously as president. In addition, she is Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.
Committed to civic engagement, Judge Rangos previously served on the Board of Fellows of the National Center for Juvenile Justice, the Board of Trustees of The Pressley Ridge Schools, the Advisory Board of the Vietnam Veteran’s Leadership Program and the Board of Directors of The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum.
She continues to serves on the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, UPMC, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the John. G. Rangos Sr. Family Foundation, dedicated to supporting education and health care related charities.
Judge Rangos received her B.A in English and Political Science from Dickinson College and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law where she was a member of the Law Review.
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Media contact: Stacey Witalec, 717-877-2997