My practice primarily is in Delaware, with some work in Pennsylvania. I focus on civil litigation (commercial, construction accident and contract litigation, premises liability, and toxic tort defense), bankruptcy litigation (creditor representation and adversary case defense), and business formation.
I was born in Washington, Pennsylvania (south of Pittsburgh). My father was a welder at a steel plant and my mother was a legal secretary and homemaker.
I came to Philadelphia in 1976 to attend the University of Pennsylvania. I majored in History and earned a B.A., magna cum laude, in 1980. I then attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School and earned a J.D. in 1983.
During law school I worked for a summer in the Philadelphia City Solicitor’s Office. After graduating law school and taking the Pennsylvania bar exam, I worked at Swartz, Campbell & Detweiler from 1983 to 1995, first as an associate, then as a partner. The work primarily was defending personal injury lawsuits. After working in the firm’s Philadelphia office for ten years, I took the Delaware bar exam and shifted my practice to develop the firm’s Wilmington, Delaware, office. I was a founder and partner at McCullough & McKenty, P.A., in Wilmington from 1995 to 2007 and since then have been a partner at Philadelphia-based Bodell, Bové, Grace & Van Horn, P.C., (2007-2012) and Bodell Bové, LLC, (2012-present) in the firm’s Wilmington office.
My pro bono legal activities include representing children as guardian ad litem in Delaware's family court system and assisting Lutheran congregations and the regional synod in the Philadelphia area. In the community, as Community Service Chair I coordinate the after-school educational and cultural trips the Penn Class of 1980 alumni participate in with students from Sayre High School, an inner-city school in West Philadelphia. I serve on the board of directors of Curio Theatre Company (2010-present) and Cedar Park Neighbors community association (2009-2011). I was a board member 2003-2009 (chair 2004-2009) at The Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania.