For the Security and Protection of the Community, PA Constitution Town Hall

Brent Landau joined the Public Interest Law Center in February 2024 as Executive Director. Mr. Landau leads all aspects of the organization’s work, including its litigation and advocacy, internal operations, and fundraising. Prior to joining the Law Center, Mr. Landau was Global Managing Partner of Hausfeld, where he managed a firm of over 170 attorneys and litigated class actions on behalf of victims of human rights violations, anticompetitive conduct, and other wrongs. As part of an active pro bono practice, Mr. Landau served as co-counsel in the Law Center’s case challenging nuisance auto-body shops in Southwest Philadelphia. Named a “Titan of the Plaintiffs’ Bar” by Law360, Mr. Landau also has been recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America, by the Legal Intelligencer as a “Distinguished Leader,” and by the National Law Journal as an “Antitrust Trailblazer and Pioneer.” A dedicated Philadelphian, Mr. Landau serves on the Board of Directors of Interfaith Philadelphia and as an Adjunct Professor at Penn Carey Law School, where he teaches a course in legal ethics. He is also a Hearing Committee member for the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Mr. Landau graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was a Supervising Editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation and Co-Chairperson of the Tenant Advocacy Project. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Bruce W. Kauffman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. in History and Philosophy, summa cum laude, from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Donald Marritz is of counsel at Community Justice Project, where he consults on cases both within the program and in the state at large, especially on unemployment and housing matters. He writes weekly summaries of relevant items in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, reports of recent appellate cases, and occasional amicus briefs in cases involving the state constitution. His entire career has been spent in civil legal aid programs. He was previously a staff attorney with several legal aid programs, including MidPenn Legal Services and Regional Housing Legal Services, and was a staff attorney in the community law clinics at Penn State-Dickson Law School for several years. He is a member of the House of Delegates of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and was recently appointed as a hearing committee member of the state Disciplinary Board. During his career, Marritz has handled a wide variety of civil legal matters, with concentrations in landlord-tenant, public benefits, manufactured housing, and state constitutional law. He is the author of an article about the special laws provision of Article III, sec. 32, of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which Prof. Seth Kreimer of UPenn Law School called the “most valuable and thorough exploration of the historical sources regarding the pathologies that precipitated the 1874 [Pennsylvania] Constitution that I have found in the legal literature. . . “ Marritz is also the author of a chapter about the Article I, sec. 11, guarantee of open courts and remedies in “The Pennsylvania Constitution: A Treatise on Rights and Reme­dies.” He has also written materials for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute on legislative procedure provisions in the Pennsylvania Constitution, unemployment compensation issues, and manufactured housing (mobile home) communities. He received special achievement awards from the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1998 and 2002, and an Excellence Award from the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network in 2006. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Colorado Law School. He is also a Vietnam veteran.

Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton was first elected in 2015 to serve communities in west and southwest Philadelphia, as well as Yeadon and Darby in Delaware County.

As a state lawmaker she has made history three times! First in 2018 when she became the first woman and first African American to be elected as House Democratic Caucus Chair, and again in 2020, when she was the first woman elected House Democratic Leader in the institution’s 244-year history. In 2023, McClinton was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House – the first woman to serve in that position in the nation’s oldest legislature.

A lifelong resident of southwest Philadelphia and graduate of Grace Temple Christian Academy, she became active in her community while completing an internship with radio station WDAS. Later, she studied Political Science and Leadership in Global Understanding at La Salle University. After earning her degree, she enrolled at Villanova University School of Law, interning at Regional Housing Legal Services, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

She was an assistant public defender for seven years and became assistant chief of the East Zone during her last year, helping attorneys with case preparation.

In 2013, Speaker McClinton combined her passion for public service and law by becoming chief counsel to state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, where she worked behind the scenes to develop policy and legislation; organize expungement fairs and public policy forums; and assist constituents.

Speaker McClinton has earned several distinctions for her commitment to public service including City and State PA's 40 Under 40, Power of Diversity: Black 100, and Above & Beyond lists, the Barristers' Association of Philadelphia's Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year award, Fun Time Magazine's Women of Influence Award, the PRE-K for PA Champion award, the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Light Community award, the Black Gala Women of Excellence, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Politics’ Elsie Hillman Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Public Service. She was named to Politico Recast’s Power List 2022, and as a NewDeal Rising Leader in 2023.

Hon. Drew Crompton, former Commonwealth Court judge, is a member of the Public Finance & Government Services Group. He leverages nearly 30 years of experience in all three branches of Pennsylvania government to assist clients across multiple areas of law and government relations.

Crompton joined McNees after serving on the Commonwealth Court, where he heard administrative and civil public law cases and wrote more than 150 published and unpublished opinions that are straightforward, thoughtful and objective. He was confirmed to the position by a strong bipartisan Senate vote.

Previously, Crompton spent 26 years serving the Pennsylvania Senate. Named one of the 10 Titans in Pennsylvania by City and State Magazine, he began in the Senate Republicans’ policy office in his early 20s, quickly became former Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer’s chief counsel and departed as general counsel to the Senate Majority Caucus and chief-of-staff to former President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati in 2019. Crompton managed dozens of high profile and extensive civil and criminal litigation cases in front of the Commonwealth and Supreme Courts — including redistricting cases, the NCAA matter, budget disputes and separation of power cases, to name a few — and drafted hundreds of state statutes affecting local and state tax laws, state agencies, education, health care, transportation and business development.

He also served as chief-of-staff and counsel to Scarnati when he assumed the role of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor in 2008.

Over the course of his career, Crompton delivered speeches at hundreds of public and private forums and spoke to a large variety of media outlets on behalf of the Pennsylvania Senate – he has been quoted in over 500 news reports over the past decade. Crompton has also established extensive contacts with individuals and organizations across the Commonwealth during his career.

When he is not practicing law, the Montgomery County native coaches the Cumberland Valley Youth Basketball Association’s girls’ team and plays on the West Shore Country Club mens’ tennis team.