Louis Rulli

Louis Rulli possesses expertise in public interest law, legislation, litigation, and clinical legal education, and has written and lectured extensively on access to justice for the poor. He is the recipient of the University-wide Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2006), Penn Carey Law’s Beacon Award for exemplary faculty commitment to pro bono service (2012), Community Legal Services’ Champion of Justice Award (2012), Villanova University’s Praxis Award in Professional Ethics (2015), and the AALS Father Robert Drinan Award (2019).

Prior to joining the Penn Carey Law faculty, Rulli was the executive director of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. He is a past chairman of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention, a founding member of the Pennsylvania IOLTA Board, and a member of the Judicial Ethics Ad Hoc Committee that recommended changes to the Code of Judicial Conduct to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He served on Mayor Jim Kenney’s Transition Team and Policy and Planning Committee (2015) and is a former chairperson of the Local Rules Committee on Domestic Violence of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. He also is a former member of the Third Circuit’s Task Force on Equal Treatment in the Courts and the Editorial Board of the Legal Intelligencer.

He currently serves as the Hearing Officer for the City of Philadelphia’s Board of Ethics, a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates, and is the Access to Justice Advisor to the Board of Governors and Cabinet of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He formerly served on the governance boards of Community Legal Services, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, Friends of Farmworkers, and the Women’s Law Project.

Rulli is only the second person to receive the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to an individual who has demonstrated substantial leadership in the creation and continuation of pro bono programs.