Michael Sklaroff Ballard Spahr

During a career spanning more than 40 years, Sklaroff has participated in landmark cases in Pennsylvania law and guided projects that have shaped the skyline, including the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center. In the early 1970s, he was part of the team that filed the first civil rights action to open the suburbs to multifamily housing in the aftermath of the Girsh Appeal (434 Pa. 237 (1970)) and established the precedent for site-specific relief in exclusionary zoning cases. He has served in government, including 12 years on the Philadelphia Historical Commission, with five years as chair. Sklaroff started the movement to save the Dream Garden, Philadelphia’s iconic Maxfield Parrish/Louis Comfort Tiffany mural at the Curtis Center, when it was under threat of removal to a Las Vegas casino. 

The legal profession is constantly evolving and that evolution only seems to have accelerated in recent years. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the profession during your career?

Time has contracted. The internet and advanced word-processing have accelerated response time and left little room for contemplation.

What is one thing about the profession that has remained unchanged over the years?

In spite of the growing monetization of legal services, the impatience of clients and the American Lawyer’s transformation of what we do into a competitive sport, the abiding flame of the profession is love of craft.