Wes Payne Receives the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation’s 2020 Louis J. Goffman Award

Wes Payne was recognized by the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation as the 2020 recipient of the Louis J. Goffman Award during the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in May.

Wes serves as a model and mentor to attorneys not only at the firm but in the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania legal communities in performance of critical pro bono services. In addition to co-chairing the firm's Pro Bono and Community Service Committee, Wes spends hundreds of hours a year engaged in pro bono work. He also serves on several pro bono and civil boards and is active in various legal organizations, holding leadership positions with many of them, including Vice Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. As a board member and lead of the firm’s Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) practice group, Wes administers bi-monthly clinics at Our Brothers Place (OBP), trying HAP cases and driving attorneys to/from OBP.

Wes, a former U.S. Army Captain, also work’s with the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Veterans and Military Affairs Committee where he assists with pro bono cases connected to the military and assists veterans and their families with legal issues.

The Pennsylvania Bar Foundation’s Louis J. Goffman Awards program seeks to recognize and honor an individual and an organization whose commitments to pro bono have enhanced the delivery of legal services to Pennsylvania’s poor or disadvantaged, making a critical difference in the lives of those in need of legal representation. The recipients’ donations of time, talent and expertise serve as a model to be emulated by other legal professionals and organizations and since 1989, the Louis J. Goffman Awards have recognized and rewarded these exceptional people and organizations.