Since new presidents are on everyone’s mind today, it’s a fitting day to note the change in leadership at the Third Circuit Bar Association.

This month Charles “Chip” Becker became 3CBA president. Becker is a partner at Kline & Specter, leading the firm’s post-trial and appellate litigation work. His father was legendary Third Circuit Judge Edward Becker, and he is a top appellate lawyer in his own right, playing a major role in recent years in litigation arising out of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal and the 2015 Amtrak derailment. One of his first tasks as president will be leading 3CBA’s support of the circuit’s judicial conference in April. Becker is a superb choice for 3CBA president and I look forward to seeing all he accomplishes.

Becker succeeds Peter Goldberger, who led 3CBA as president since 2014. Goldberger is the founder and principal of a three-lawyer firm in Ardmore, PA, focusing on appeals and post-conviction aspects of federal criminal cases nationwide. In 2015 Goldberger added to his extraordinary record of appellate accomplishment by successfully defending in the Third Circuit his post-conviction exoneration of Han Tak Lee. He is the 2015 recipient of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ prestigious Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award and 2016 recipient of the Federal Criminal Law Committee for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Clifford Scott Green Bill of Rights Award. The association has benefited tremendously from his fine leadership as president.

In our polarized age, there aren’t many folks who think the world of both our last US president and our next one. It’s good to remember today that 3CBA has been, and will continue to be, led so well.