PLAINS TWP. — The Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick President Terry McMahon recently announced Attorney Joseph Burke will receive the W. Francis Swingle Award when the Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick gather March 17 for their 103rd annual St. Patrick’s Day Banquet.

Attorney Burke is affiliated with Burke Vullo Reilly Roberts, a full-service law practice with offices in Forty Fort. He has been engaged in the private practice of law for the past 32 years. His practice emphasizes commercial law and litigation.

Atty. Burke serves as General Counsel to Pride Mobility Products. He is a graduate of the Scranton Preparatory School and Lehigh University where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Government. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Delaware Law School of Widener University, where he was a member of the Law Review, The Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, and recipient of the 1982 Moot Court Competition Best Advocate Award. Early in his career, he served as judicial clerk to the Hon. Patrick J. Toole, Jr., Past President Judge of Luzerne County.

Prior to attending law school, Atty. Burke served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps working at the Centro Loyola Center of North Philadelphia. There, he managed an after-school tutoring, sports and recreation program for local youth. Throughout his professional career, he has remained active in church, civic and charitable affairs. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Scranton Preparatory School and Chair of its Ignatian Identity and Mission Committee. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Jesuit Center for Spiritual Growth. Joined by his wife, Attorney Kathleen M. Burke, he served as Co-Chair of the Scranton Diocesan Annual Campaign. He chaired the Greater Pittston YMCA Building Stronger Communities Capital Campaign, serving also as President and Trustee of that organization. He also served as Co-Chair of the North Penn Legal Services Campaign and for eight years as Lawyers Division Chair of the United Way of Wyoming Valley.

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Atty. Burke served as President of the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce and the Immaculate Conception Parish Council. He also served in leadership roles for the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association, the Luzerne County Bar Association Charitable Foundation, the West Pittston Library Association, the Wyoming Area School District Drug and Alcohol Policy Committee, the Greater Pittston Stoners Youth Soccer Association, the Newman Foundation of Lehigh University and the St. Thomas More Society.

He is a sustaining member of the Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and a participant in the Woodstock Business Conference. He served for 17 years as a high school CCD instructor and remains an active member of the Corpus Christi Parish, West Pittston. Atty. Burke is the recipient of the 2016 T. Donald Rinfret Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Scranton Preparatory School, the 2013 YMCA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2008 YMCA Volunteer of the Year Award. He and his wife actively support the work of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation, Coaches vs. Cancer, Endure for the Cure, the Catherine McAuley Center, St. Joseph’s Center and Marley’s Mission.

Atty. Burke is admitted to practice before the United States and Pennsylvania Supreme Courts, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer four times by Thomson Reuters and has been recognized for the past seventeen years in the Martindale Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is a Fellow of the American and Pennsylvania Bar Foundations, as well the Litigation Counsel of America. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Professionalism Committee. He served as a Senior Member of the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board Hearing Committee.

He currently serves as a Board Member of the Northeast Pennsylvania Land Bank Authority.

He and his wife, Kathleen have three children, Elizabeth Davis (Christian), Joseph Jr. and Michael; and two grandchildren, Burke Christian Davis and Whitney Elizabeth Davis.

The Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Day Banquet will be held Friday, March 17 at the Woodlands Inn and Resort on Route 315 Friday. Ticket prices are $80 per person and $50 for guests under the age of 21. Children Banquet tickets are also available for guest under 12 for $25.

Tickets may be purchased from any active member of the Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick or at the Knights of Columbus on Main Street in Pittston every Thursday night until the night of the Banquet and they must be purchased in advanced.

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For Sunday Dispatch

Information provided by Patrick Bilbow