02Philadelphia
A Philadelphia life in the law.
Brown University, B.A. magna cum laude, 1975. Then Penn Law: J.D. cum laude, 1978, an editor of the Law Review, and the Order of the Coif.
A tribute from a friend
Mark L. Alderman
Lawyer, counselor, and citizen
of the republic. Philadelphia
and Washington.
To an old friend, simply Pericles.
01A friend’s name for him
Pericles.
Levi has known Mark since the age of six, and calls him Pericles — after the Athenian statesman who praised a city whose citizens argued in the open and judged public questions for themselves.
It is a name for a particular kind of person: patient in argument, serious about the common good, and unfailingly gentle with the people around him.
“Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.”
Pericles, Funeral Oration — Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.40, trans. Richard Crawley
In chambers
From 1978 to 1979 he clerked for the Honorable Joseph S. Lord III, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Leading WolfBlock
From 1997 he served as chairman of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, a century-old Philadelphia institution, and chaired its government relations and public strategies affiliates.
Building the city
He has given his time to the institutions that make Philadelphia: trustee of the University of Pennsylvania; chair of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital board; trustee of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; chair of the Philadelphia International Airport advisory board; and boards from WXPN to the Philadelphia Bar Foundation.
03The Constitution
A constitutional mind.
Admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and a member of the adjunct faculty at Penn Law, Mark has returned again and again to the design of American self-government.
In 2016 he wrote in The Daily Beast, as a former Pennsylvania elector, about how the Founders built the Electoral College, reading the institution through Hamilton and the debates of the founding era.
04Milestones
Five decades of quiet work.
05December 17, 2012 · Harrisburg
1of538
Meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s twenty electors cast the Commonwealth’s votes for President and Vice President. Mark L. Alderman’s name is the first on the certificate.
- 20
- Pennsylvania electors
- 2,990,274
- votes for each elector on the certificate of ascertainment
- 332
- electoral votes for the President’s re-election
Pennsylvania State Capitol rotunda
06Washington
Counsel at every level of government.
As founder and chairman of Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, Mark advises clients before lawmakers, executive officials, and regulators, local, state, and federal, from offices in Philadelphia and Washington.
- Democratic National CommitteeNational Finance Committee, Pennsylvania chair
- Obama–BidenPresidential Transition Team · Inaugural Committee
- Federal bench and barU.S. Attorney Nominating Commission · Judicial Selection Commission, E.D. Pa.
- SmithsonianAdvisory board, National Air and Space Museum
07Community
Held close.
His commitments include the American Jewish Committee’s Philadelphia chapter, part of a life in which community and civic duty sit comfortably side by side.
He served on the original board of Living Beyond Breast Cancer and on the board of the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center of Philadelphia. The work is rarely announced. It simply continues.
08Character
Humble. Wise. Deliberative. Gentle. He listens first, weighs every side, and speaks last. In years of friendship, Levi has never seen him lose his composure.
As described by a friend since childhood.
“Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.”
Pericles, Funeral Oration — Thucydides 2.37, trans. Richard Crawley
For Mark, with gratitude.
— Levi