Michael H. Reed, CLA ’69, a past president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and longtime partner of the Pepper Hamilton law firm, has been elected to Temple University’s Board of Trustees.

Reed is special counsel in the Philadelphia office of Pepper Hamilton, where he is a member of the firm’s Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice Group and concentrates his practice in bankruptcy and insolvency law. He was the first person of color to lead the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Reed taught bankruptcy law at Temple as an adjunct professor in 1989 and currently serves as general counsel of the Temple University Alumni Association.

Reed formerly served on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association, and he is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association and as first vice president of the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia.

In 2011, Reed was appointed to the Philadelphia Board of Ethics and has served as chair of the board since December 2012. He also serves as vice chair of the board of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Reed was a member of the Committee of Seventy for 30 years and previously served on the boards of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

A Philadelphia native, Reed joined Pepper Hamilton, a multi-practice firm with more than 500 lawyers nationally, in 1972 and was elected a partner in 1980. He is married to Yalta Gilmore-Reed, and the couple have two children, Alexandra and Michael Jr.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in political science from Temple, Reed graduated from Yale Law School.

Reed’s nomination was approved July 12. His term extends through October 2018. Temple’s Board of Trustees is comprised of 36 voting members, 24 of whom are elected and 12 of whom are appointed by state officials.