Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, the Executive Director of the Sheller
Center for Social Justice at Temple Law School, has been named the
2014 recipient of the Sandra Day O’Connor Award by the Philadelphia
Bar Association. The award is conferred annually on a woman
attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved
significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement
of women in both the profession and the community. Prior
Temple Law recipients include Dean JoAnne Epps in 2009 and
Professor Marina Angel in 1996. Dean Epps is also the 2014
recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Justice Sonia
Sotomayor Diversity Award.
Prior to joining the Sheller Center, Judge Moss was a Civil
Division Judicial Team Leader in the First Judicial District of
Pennsylvania. Her duties included supervising a voluminous docket
of complex medical malpractice, products liability and catastrophic
accident cases, while overseeing a team of six trial judges. She is
the founder and coordinating judge emeritus of Philadelphia’s
nationally recognized Complex Litigation Center. In that
capacity she created ground breaking case management procedures in
Mass Tort Litigation particularly in Asbestos and eighteen
Pharmaceutical Programs where she supervised over 9,000 mass tort
cases.
Judge Moss received the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2007
Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Distinguished Jurist Award which
recognizes a jurist who adheres to the highest ideals of judicial
service. She was also selected as the Beasley School of Law’s
Certificate of Honor Recipient at Temple University’s Founder’s Day
Celebration in 2008. In 2010 the Philadelphia Legal
Intelligencer honored her as a Woman of Distinction. The Bar
Association’s State Civil Litigation Section at its 2011 annual
meeting honored Judge Moss for distinguished service and dedication
to their organization and to the Court. In 2013 Judge Moss
was inducted into the National Trial Lawyer’s Hall of Fame
recognizing her Twenty-Five year contribution to Mass Tort
Litigation.