PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- How do you get from 60th Street in West Philadelphia to a high-rise office in your own firm overlooking Rittenhouse Square? Alan M. Feldman, the Philadelphia Bar Association's incoming 79th Chancellor, would probably say, 'I've been very lucky,' and attribute his success to others. But those who know him well might credit Feldman's success to hard work, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a deep commitment to the legal profession.

Feldman will outline his plans for 2006 at the Association's Annual meeting luncheon on Tuesday, December 6 at noon in the Grand Ballroom of the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, Broad and Walnut Streets.

The new Chancellor is expected to stress judicial independence and the funding of legal services for the poor, among other issues.

Alan Feldman graduated from Central High School (228th class) where he was Vice President of the Student Association. Recognizing that he would have to attend a local college and work his way through school, Feldman was accepted into the first honors program at Temple University. No stranger to hard work, he found employment with a law firm filing legal papers at City Hall and serving as an all-around gofer. Even then, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: be a trial lawyer.

After graduating magna cum laude from Temple in 1973, the  University's law school was a natural next step for Feldman. To help pay his tuition, he founded AMF Associates, a legal filing business, and an entrepreneur was born.

Before long, AMF (operated by Feldman and his brother Elliott, now a partner at Cozen O'Connor) was filing and serving subpoenas for more than 40 law firms. As a budding businessman meeting with his lawyer-clients every day, Feldman was the guy at Temple Law who always wore a tie.

After graduating from law school, Feldman clerked for Judge Stanley M. Greenberg and then joined the firm of Raynes, McCarty as an  associate, beginning his career in civil litigation. In 1987, Feldman founded his own firm, now known as Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner & Weinstock.

Today, with 14 attorneys, the firm is among Philadelphia's elite plaintiffs litigation boutiques, counting among its partners some of the best and brightest trial lawyers in the region.

Though he has dedicated a good deal of his life to achieving his current success, Alan Feldman has also devoted much time to the profession and the community. He has served as President of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, lectured and published materials for numerous programs and seminars, co-authored a textbook on premises liability law and taught trial advocacy at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. He has also served on the Board of the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program and as Treasurer of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation. He joined the Philadelphia Bar Association fresh out of law school and was elected chair of the Young  Lawyers Division in 1986.

After being elected to the Association's Board of Governors, he went on to serve terms as Assistant Treasurer and then Treasurer of the Association. Elected Vice Chancellor in 2003, he is now completing his term as Chancellor-Elect.