When Ken Shear decided to apply to become the next Philadelphia Bar Association’s executive director, he wanted the job because the association was a leader in the city and influential in the running of the city’s civic affairs. As Shear announced his upcoming retirement after serving the association for almost 36 years Thursday, his colleagues said that it is largely because of Shear that the association has indeed had such influence and indeed been such a leader. Shear will retire in 2013.
Ben Picker, a past chancellor of the association and senior counsel with Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, said that Shear always pushed chancellors with his “constructive judgment and his good humor,” including on adopting policies that advanced the public interest and public service, but that he always yielded to chancellors because they speak for the organization.
