Neutral, Mediator and Arbitrator with ADR Options since 2006
Thomas A. Wallitsch was a Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas Judge from 1991 to 2006. He has conducted more than 3,000 mediation and arbitration matters since leaving the bench and is one of the busiest mediators/arbitrators in Pennsylvania.
Judge Wallitsch has lead a panel in April 2019 for training Moroccan lawyers of the Marrakech Center for Dispute Resolution on the use, benefit, and process of mediation. Morocco has recently begun to use mediation as an alternative dispute resolution tool. Judge Wallitsch had worked in Morocco in 2005 as the judicial liaison to the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Program in that country. He has returned a few times thereafter, creating a course curriculum for the training in judicial ethics, among other projects.
From 1973 until assuming the bench, he was in private practice specializing in complex civil litigation and was certified as a Civil Trial Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Judge Wallitsch has handled every type of civil case and has extensive experience in personal injury, professional negligence, commercial, employment and insurance disputes.
Judge Wallitsch served as Chair of the Appellate Court Procedural Rules Committee and served as Co-Chair of the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of Trial Judges for eight years. He is a frequent lecturer and author on issues relating to civil litigation including medical malpractice and the settlement of cases.
Judge Wallitsch is voted Best Lawyer for Arbitration in Pennsylvania starting with the 2016 edition
Best Lawyer magazine named him “Lawyer of the Year” for 2021
He received his B.A. from Dickinson College, his J.D. from Duquesne University, and his M.G.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Judge Wallitsch has completed the National Judicial College’s course on Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has also served as Senior Judicial Advisor to the Supreme Court of Afghanistan for USAID’s Rule of Law Project and as Resident Judicial Liaison for the ABA’s Judicial Reform Program in Morocco.
