Trust in Our Elections: A Community Conversation

Robert A. Graci is a Pennsylvania attorney and former appellate court judge. He served as an assistant district attorney and deputy and chief deputy attorney general before being appointed to and serving on Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, an intermediate appellate court. He served as Executive Director and Chief Counsel to the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board. He has experience as a trial lawyer and has handled appeals in all of Pennsylvania’s appellate courts as well as the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third and Fourth Circuits and the Supreme Court of the United States. He was named many times as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer.

He currently serves as senior counsel in a Pennsylvania law firm where he Chairs the Attorney and Judicial Ethics and Discipline Practice Group, counselling judges and lawyers in ethics matters. He also represents clients in the Appellate and Post-Trial Advocacy Practice and Criminal Defense and Investigations Groups where he draws on his long experience as a prosecutor and appellate advocate and judge. He also provides litigants with mediation services. He has frequently lectured on constitutional law topics, as well as legal and judicial ethics. He earned his law degree, with honors, from the University of Miami School of Law.

Mr. Corbett’s primary areas of practice include government relations, energy law, business crime, corporate compliance and internal investigations.

Education: Lebanon Valley College, B.A., 1971 | St. Mary’s University School of Law, J.D., 1975

Experience: Serving as a key advisor to U.S. presidents and governors; Drafting and promoting legislation and administrative rules before the Pennsylvania Legislature and Executive Branch; Monitoring public policy and legislative developments regionally and nationally that affect clients; Providing guidance on state government systems and processes and broad knowledge of government structure and relationships; Governor of Pennsylvania, 2011 - 2015; Attorney General of Pennsylvania, 1995 - 1997, 2005 - 2011; Assistant General Counsel, Government Affairs, Waste Management, Inc.; Chair, Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency; United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1989 - 1993; Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1980 - 1983; Adjunct Faculty, Environmental Law, St. Vincent College; Distinguished Lecturer, Duquesne University School of Law; 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, 1971 - 1984.

Matt Haar draws on more than 20 years of experience as a litigator to handle corporate and commercial disputes, including cases involving insurance and reinsurance, energy and permitting, and clean energy. Beyond this industry-specific work, Matt represents companies across an array of industries, including real estate, government contracts and cannabis, in litigation in state, and federal trial and appeals courts, as well as before administrative bodies in Pennsylvania and throughout the country. His experience includes cases involving fraud, misrepresentation and negligence.

Matt also handles disputes among owners and key employees of closely held businesses, including cases requiring arbitration and involving business break-ups. He also handles bid protests, challenges to licensing procedures, title insurance claims and statutory violations, including the Uniform Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law and the Real Estate Sellers Disclosure Law.

Insurance companies rely on Matt to represent them in coverage and contractual litigation, antitrust matters, rehabilitations and liquidations, and bad faith actions. The depth and breadth of Matt's understanding of bad faith issues in particular is reflected in his work on a comprehensive 50-state survey, "Insurance Bad Faith: A Compendium of State Law." Published by DRI Defense Library Series (4th. Ed 2015), Matt is the co-author and regional editor of this survey. Matt also routinely handles extra-contractual liability cases for other clients in the financial services industry such as real estate agents and brokers, banks, trusts, producers and credit card companies.

Beyond his commercial litigation and insurance work, Matt litigates disputes related to exploration, production and transportation of oil and natural gas, in state and federal courts as well as Pennsylvania state administrative agencies. He also handles matters for clean energy companies.

Jean is serving her second term on the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners. Foschi, a resident of the county for 24 years, served on the Upper Allen Township Zoning Board, since 2005, most recently as chairperson.

Jean’s corporate experience includes positions at Graystone Tower Bank, as a corporate paralegal, business collections specialist and business lending analyst at Members 1st Federal Credit Union, title agent, paralegal and law librarian at the Harrisburg law firm of Mette, Evans & Woodside and a paralegal at Shumaker Williams, P.C. She also spent six years in the restaurant industry.

Jean has a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Paralegal Certificate from Penn State. She lives in Upper Allen Township with her husband and their two children.

Commissioner Foschi serves as the liaison for a number of boards and authorities.

Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed Al Schmidt as Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth on Jan. 17, 2023 , and Schmidt officially became Secretary on June 29, 2023. Prior to his appointment, Schmidt was president and chief executive officer at the Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit and nonpartisan good-government organization focused on strengthening democracy and combatting political corruption.

Before joining the Committee of Seventy, Schmidt served for 10 years as a Philadelphia City Commissioner. As a commissioner, Schmidt was one of three members on the bipartisan Board of Elections, where he was vice chairman. Since first being elected as city commissioner in November 2011, Schmidt worked to modernize election operations, improve efficiency, and bring greater integrity to the election process.  

Secretary Schmidt is a former senior analyst at the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and served as a policy analyst for the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. Originally from Pittsburgh, he holds a doctorate in history from Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Allegheny College.