Michael P. Williams received his J.D. from the University Of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1996. At Penn Law, Mr. Williams was the CSR (student body) President in 1995-1996, and a Vice-President of the Class of 1996. Originally from Compton, California, Mr. Williams graduated magna cum laude from Temple University in 1993 with a degree in French Studies. Mr. Williams was formerly a labor and employment associate at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhoads, LLP, and formerly the Deputy Director of Community Legal Services, Inc. While Mr. Williams worked for Montgomery McCracken, he served as Fund Counsel for District 1199C’s Legal Defense Fund.
Mr. Williams was a member ofPennLawSchool’s Law Alumni Society’s Board of Managers, and was a member of Penn Law’s Public Service Advisory Steering Committee. He was on his Penn Law Class of 1996’s five and ten-year reunion committees. He was also involved with a PENN GALA steering committee committed to raising the capital to fund the Penn LGBT student center at the University.
Mr. Williams was a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division’s Executive Committee. He was also Chair of the PBA’s Delivery of Legal Services Task Force working on loan repayment assistance issues.
Mr. Williams served as a member of the Philadelphia Mayor John Street’s LGBT Advisory Board, and was President of OutFront, a Philadelphia-based LGBT platform-based political advocacy organization. In 2002, Mr. Williams originally drafted the gender identity legislation that was eventually added to Philadelphia’s Fair Practices Ordinance; he also initiated the work on the non-discrimination ordinance that was enacted in New Hope, PA, also in 2002.
In July 2002, The Legal Intelligencer recognized Mr. Williams as one of eleven “Minority Rising Stars” practicing law in Pennsylvania. He was active with the Barrister’s mentoring program. Mr. Williams was appointed to Pennsylvania Governor-Elect Edward G. Rendell’s Department of Environmental Protection Transition Team.
In May 2003, Mr. Williams was awarded Penn Law’s Distinguished Young Alumni award. In October 2003, Governor Rendell nominated Mr. Williams to be the Governor’s Commonwealth Trustee to Temple University’s Board of Trustees. The Pennsylvania Senate approved Mr. Williams’ appointment in November 2003. Mr. Williams served two consecutive terms as a Temple Trustee. Mr. Williams is currently a Member of the Temple Ambler College Board of Visitors. Before becoming aTempleTrustee, Mr. Williams was an adjunct faculty member atTempleUniversity’s Fox School of Business and Management.
Mr. Williams is a Mission Kids Board Member (providing, inter alia, legal expertise for Mission Kids), and does extensive volunteer work as a Team Leader for Philadelphia’s NAACP Voter Empowerment (i.e., voter registration, voter ID information and voter empowerment) project.
In January 2004, Mayor John Street appointed Mr. Williams to the Ethics
Committee of Mayor Street's Philadelphia 21st Century Review Forum, where he was the lead draftsperson of an “Omnibus Code of Ethics” for Philadelphia municipal and county employees and political officials, and for entities that do business with the City of Philadelphia. In 2004, Mayor Street appointed Mr. Williams to become a Deputy Finance Director, and the Director of the Minority Business Enterprise Council. At MBEC, Mr. Williams increased minority/women/disabled certified-business City contract (for profit) participation rates from approximately 4% to approximately 20%.
In January 2005, the Philadelphia Daily News listed Mr. Williams as one of its 21 People to Watch in 2005, and the Philadelphia Gay News named him one of its six “People of the Year.” In February 2005, the Philadelphia Tribune (the nation’s oldest continuously published black-owned newspaper) named Mr. Williams one ofPhiladelphia’s African American Leaders in its annual “Philadelphia’s Most Influential African Americans” issue. Mr. Williams was again honored by the Tribune as an African American Leader in January 2006. Mr. Williams was also honored in 2006 by the Pan-Asian Association of Greater Philadelphia with a Recognition Award for his work with the Philadelphia-area Asian-American business community.
Mr. Williams most recently was a Senior Attorney in the Health and Adult Services Unit for the City of Philadelphia Law Department. His primary practice area was Health Care Policy and Procedures; he also litigated inMental Health Court,Lead CourtandTB Court. Mr. Williams had successfully handled numerous sensitive and critical legal matters on the City’s behalf.
Mr. Williams recentlyleft the Law Department after 6 and ½ years to joinPicciotti&Schoenberg,Pennsylvania's premiere IT and IP law firm. In his new position, Mr. Williams is Chairman of Picciotti & Schoenberg's Forensic IT Auditing practice. Picciotti & Schoenberg's IT Forensic Auditing practice examines digital media in a scientific and legally sound manner. It analyzes, indentifies, preserves and recovers electronic information. It handles forensic computer examinations for private businesses, law enforcement and government agencies. It restores and analyzes deleted data, tracks internet usage and traces the theft or removal of electronic files from personal computers and networks. It also retrieves deleted information from personal computer hard drives, corporate email accounts, cell phones and voice mails.
Mr. Williams’ partner for 28 years, Anthony (“Tony”) R. Rodriguez, M.D., is a partner in a private Family Medicine practice in Willow Grove, PA, and also the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Diversity at Drexel Medical School. Dr. Rodriguez is active with numerous charitable boards throughout the Philadelphia region. Their son Kristopher is currently a senior at Temple University.
