The Causeway
The monthly newsletter for the Franklin County Bar Association
"The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely" Robert Bolt, playwright
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Book Sale to Benefit Franklin County Legal Services |
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The second of this year’s Book Drop-Off Days for the Friends of Legal Services Book Sale will take place this Saturday, March 4th, from 9AM to 1PM at the Chambersburg Mall. Follow the signs through the Mall parking lot and bring us your new and used books, CDs (including audio books), DVDs, sheet music, puzzles, and board games. Your books will bring joy to other readers, and the sale proceeds will help provide legal services in civil cases to low-income families in our area. Receipts for tax purposes will be available on request. The group does not accept encyclopedias, textbooks, or phonograph records.
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The Friends of Legal Services will hold its 37th Annual Book Sale on May 19th, 20th, and 21st, at the Chambersburg Mall! |
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Say Cheese! 2023 Bench & Bar Composite Picture |
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The Franklin County Bar Association is pleased to announce that we are creating a new bench & bar composite picture in 2023. Our last composite picture was 2012. We invite you to participate in this year’s group photo. We are working with LA Cameras, a local photographer. You’ll be able to schedule your sitting, view your photo, pay the sitting fee, and order any prints directly with LA Cameras.
Please call LA Cameras at (717) 263-0043 to schedule your appointment. LA Cameras is located at 1019 Wayne Avenue, Chambersburg, PA 17201.
The available time slots are:
March 20th: 9am – 2pm & 3pm – 6pm
March 23rd: 9am – 2pm & 3pm – 6pm
The sitting fee is $35 per person and is due at the time of your sitting. The cost for photos is listed on the ORDER FORM. Please complete the form and take it with you to your sitting.
Thank you for your continued support of our Bar!
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FCBA YLD & FCB Foundation host Law Day contests |
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Join the FCBA YLD at the Race Against Poverty |
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The FCBA YLD is proud to participate in this year's Race Against Poverty. The FCBA YLD has sponsored a race team every year since 2014.
We hope you can join us for the 13th Annual Race Against Poverty, June 2nd in downtown Chambersburg!
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Women in Need - BINGO on March 26, 2023 |
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Join us for a fun afternoon with lunch, bingo games, fishbowl tickets, and a door prize drawing at the American Legion. All proceeds benefit WIN (Women in Need). |
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2022 IOLTA Board Annual Report |
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The IOLTA Board’s 2022 Annual Report promotes transparency in their administration of scarce public funds for civil legal aid. The report features client stories from KidsVoice Pennsylvania, Neighborhood Legal Services, and Penn State Law, as well as a testimonial from an attorney at Northwestern Legal Services about the positive impact of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program on her ability to work in public service. A list of private attorneys that made voluntary donations to the IOLTA Fund in 2022 begins on page 20.
The IOLTA Board respectfully urges law firms to patronize our Platinum Leader Banks for their IOLTA accounts. Platinum Leader Banks voluntarily pay a premium interest rate on IOLTA accounts, thereby increasing funding available for civil legal aid. As always, any questions about the IOLTA Board may be directed to Stephanie S. Libhart.
Stephanie S. Libhart
Executive Director
Pennsylvania IOLTA Board
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
717-238-2002
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These CLEs are available in our Chambersburg office! |
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March 9th @ 9 am - 4:30 pm
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March 14th @ 9 am - 12:15 pm
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March 22nd @ 9 am - 12:15 pm
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March 31st @ 9 am - 12:15 pm
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April 11th @ 9 am - 12:15 pm
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April 25th @ 9 am - 12:15 pm
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ACBA is offering a free online CLE |
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Franklin County Learning Opportunity - Intro to Human Services Spring 2023 |
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Event Name: Intro to Human Services Spring 2023
Event Date: March 14, 2023
Time: 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
Location of Event: PennState Extension 181 Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg
Registration Closes: March 6, 2023
Registration is still open for Intro to Human Services- Spring 2023. You can register up until March 6, 2023 at which point registration will close. Franklin County Intro to Human Services is a training event that will educate individuals directly on the specific programs / services that are provided for Franklin County residents through the Franklin County Human Services Division.
The Franklin County Human Services Division consists of the following departments:
- Franklin/Fulton County Drug and Alcohol
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Franklin/Fulton County Mental Health, Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, and Early Intervention
- Franklin/Fulton PATH/Mental Health Housing
- Franklin County Children and Youth Services
- Franklin County Veteran Affairs
- Franklin County Area Agency on Aging
- Franklin County Ombudsman
- Franklin County Information and Referral (Pennsylvania 211 and LINK)
- Franklin County Public Defenders' Office (Not Presenting)
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Franklin County Human Services Block Grant (Not Presenting)
- Franklin County Community Connections Division
This event will be held at Penn State Cooperative Extension 181 Franklin Farm Lane Chambersburg, Pa. This is a great opportunity to gain better knowledge of all the services Franklin County Human Services can provide not just your clients but you as well. There is no cost associated with this training so, come, connect and get to know us.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Lillian M. Rodriguez
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Press Releases, Memos and Important Notices |
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Court Calendaring and Wayfinding
The 39th Judicial District is now live with modern Court Scheduling for events, officials, and Courtrooms.
Through CountySuite/Teleosoft, Court Scheduling is online for public court matters, and includes Courthouse Wayfinder.
The Wayfinder feature provides a scrolling display of all scheduled events for public viewing in general areas of the Courthouse in the Franklin County Branch of the 39th Judicial District and is integrated with CPCMS (Common Pleas “Criminal” Case Management System).
Below is the link for public view online:
The link can be found on the Franklin County website at www.franklincountypa.gov under the Judicial Tab and then by clicking on the Court Calendar Tab. You may also find this link on our FCBA website, on the Judicial District page:
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The Disciplinary Board
of the Supreme Court of PA
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Read the latest news and statistics from the Supreme Court of PA.
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Guardianship Tracking System Online Workshops offered by AOPC - April, May, and June |
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Please see below for a brochure regarding the next round of GTS Guardian Workshops for court-appointed guardians. This series offers sessions in April, May, and June.
Guardians who participated in any of the prior workshop/webinar sessions will not need to attend since the material being presented is essentially the same. This series is again being offered exclusively as ‘Online Workshops’. The online webinars have been very successful and convenient for the guardians since various dates and times are being offered to accommodate their schedules, and also travel is not required.
The guardians will need to register online so that the trainers can appropriately plan and staff the sessions based on the number expected to participate.
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Do you have a updated FCBA member list? |
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The complete member list is updated quarterly and available to you and your staff two ways.
You may download and print a PDF from the members' section of our website (log in required). Or you may email Amelia at director@franklinbar.org to receive a PDF or excel document anytime.
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Coffee Corner
"Coffee Corner" is a periodic column in The Causeway by Bar members Annie Gómez Shockey, Brandon Copeland, and Erich Hawbaker.
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by Annie R. Gómez Shockey
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For this month’s article I interviewed the Immediate Past President of our Bar Association, AJ Benchoff. AJ was born in Waynesboro Hospital, which is something young people will no longer be able to say since the maternity ward at Waynesboro Hospital was shut down in September of 2020. He is the only child of Joe and Liane Benchoff. Benchoff is a name of German/English heritage. It was originally Banzhof, and was Anglicized when his ancestors immigrated to the United States. “Hof” means “house of” and “Banz” is traced to the mid-1400s in a town in Bavaria. Joe was from the Sabillasville/Thurmont, Maryland area and Liane was from Waynesboro. In fact, her father was Ed Miller, the longstanding caretaker of Renfrew. Joe and Liane decided to settle in Waynesboro and that’s where AJ was raised. |
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Joe worked at Grove, which is now Manitowoc, as a business systems analyst from the time AJ was born. He helped build programs to monitor crane production. He stayed with Grove until layoffs hit in the late 1990s/early 2000s, while AJ was in law school. Joe then became a government contractor providing assistance to the U. S. Department of Defense. The really interesting thing about Joe’s job is that it provided AJ with the opportunity to go inside of Site R (Raven Rock Mountain Complex) located near Blue Ridge Summit, PA. Back then, at Thanksgiving, all immediate family members of employees at Site R were invited inside to have Thanksgiving Dinner together. If you’ve never heard of Site R or Raven Rock, that’s ok. It’s not something most people have heard of outside of Waynesboro. Here’s an excerpt from Garrett Graff’s 2017 book that explains what Raven Rock is, Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die.
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Raven Rock is this massive, hollowed-out mountain. It's a free-standing city ... with individual buildings, three-story buildings, built inside of this mountain. It has everything that a small city would — there's a fire department there, there's a police department, medical facilities, dining halls. The dining facility serves four meals a day, it's a 24 hour facility, and it was sort of mothballed to a certain extent during the 1990s as the Cold War ended and then was restarted in a hurry after Sept. 11 and has been pretty dramatically expanded over the last 15 years, and today could hold as many as 5,000 people in the event of an emergency. |
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Needless to say, since September 11, 2001, families aren’t getting together for Thanksgiving Dinner at Site R anymore. |
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When I asked AJ to tell me about his mom, the first thing that he said was “My mom was made to be a mom.” Being a mom myself, I can tell you that there is no higher compliment a child can give to their mother than that. Unfortunately, she passed away four years ago and won’t be able to read this compliment, but I’m sure AJ expressed that to her many times and in many ways over the years. When not being a mom to AJ, Liane cared for other children as a teacher’s assistant for Mr. Pernell, who taught 3rd and 4th graders with developmental disabilities. The great part about this job for AJ is that she had the summers off. This provided him with the entire summer time to make memories with his mother and his friends. It also meant he had plenty of time to run around at Renfrew, go swimming in the creek, and ride his bikes on the trails (even though that wasn’t always permitted).
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In 1995, AJ graduated high school and set off for college at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, MD. At the time, it was Mount St. Mary’s College, but is now a University. AJ did the sensible thing and commuted for three years. He made friends with commuters and with those who lived on campus. He’s still very close friends with many of his college friends. They had their 20-year class reunion in 2019, and about 12 – 15 of his closest college friends attended. They stayed on campus for the reunion and it was wonderful. Commuting to college gave AJ the financial ability to study abroad in Ireland the first semester of his senior year. When I asked AJ to tell me about his experience abroad he told me how much fun he had, how much he learned and how much Guinness there was to be had. He was as a political science major. His advisor, Dr. Towle, taught a few courses that were Irish-centric (the Irish Economic System, the History of Ireland, the Irish Polity), and then rounded out their course load with a finance class at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, which is a suburb of Dublin. They took this class with Irish students and participated in all extracurricular activities that the Irish students did. He stayed in touch with his Irish friends for quite some time. |
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After graduating from Mount St. Mary’s College in 1999, AJ went on to attend Dickinson School of Law. At that time Dickinson didn’t have an offering in State College. He knew he wanted to practice law in Pennsylvania since all of his family and friends were in the Waynesboro area, so that’s why he chose a law school that was close to home. Although he lived in Carlisle during law school, being close to home meant that he could easily go home to get away from the rigors of law school. When I asked AJ why he went to law school, he said his Dad likes to tell the story about when he was in middle school. Apparently, he made a comment that when he got older he would go to Mount St. Mary’s and then go to law school, but other than that it’s not something AJ had on the forefront of his mind until meeting a college buddy’s father who was an attorney in DC. Over the summers at the Mount, AJ and his friend, Kevin Bransford, would regularly hang out in the dorms and go to concerts in DC on the weekends. Since Kevin’s parents lived in DC, they’d often hang out at his parents’ house. Slowly AJ got to know Kevin’s family including his father, William Bransford, who was a partner in the firm Shaw Bransford & Roth practicing labor law. Mr. Bransford became a mentor to AJ. It was that mentorship and the knowledge that going to law school meant he didn’t have to work for another three years, which led AJ to the profession he has now. |
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Upon graduation from law school, AJ went to work for Clint Barkdoll & Steve Kulla. He was there over a year when Donald Kornfield’s solo practice reached the point of needing an associate. Don was doing a fair amount of real estate and business transactions, which were the areas of law upon which AJ wanted to focus. He then worked for Don as an associate until becoming a partner about ten years ago. At this point, AJ owns the firm and Don does some transactional work but doesn’t do appearances. AJ is fulfilled by the work he does each day and is also glad to be able to carve out time with his family. |
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Pictured left to right: Victoria Beard, Katie Benchoff, John Frey, AJ Benchoff, and Brandon Burger |
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AJ met his wife, Katie, in middle school. They were not romantic at that time. In fact, they weren’t friends or enemies. They just knew of one another. In high school, Katie was the accompanist for the choirs. She was in the chorale side of extracurricular activities. AJ, on the other hand, was more into sports. He played golf and basketball. Their friends overlapped a little bit but not much. Then a mutual friend of theirs got married the summer before AJ left for Ireland. They were both invited to the wedding. They seemed to hit it off at the wedding and became friends. They began to bond over his trip to Ireland since Katie had spent a month there in middle school. Then Katie went to graduate school at Shippensburg University to get her master’s degree in education which came with a teaching certificate to teach middle/high school. Since he was living in an apartment in Carlisle while attending Dickinson, they found themselves living only 15 – 20 minutes apart. They started dating in 2001 and continued dating for about 2 years before he proposed. He proposed over the holidays in 2003 and they got married on April 10, 2004 at Green Grove Gardens when it was pretty rustic compared to today. It was beautiful. A few years later, they were blessed with their only child, Henry. Henry is now a sophomore at WASHS. He plays on the soccer team and is currently playing indoor soccer. |
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Finally, I asked AJ about his hobbies. He said he likes golf a lot, watching sports (especially golf) both at home and in-person, and spending time with his family and playing board games. They have a board game group with two other couples. They rotate the houses at which they play. They play board games like: Terraforming Mars and Dune Imperium (based on the book & movie franchise, Dune). A lot of the games are deck building and victory point accumulation games. Katie’s brother, Doug, has season tickets to the Philly Union MLS Soccer games. They’ve been attending 4 - 6 games per year since Henry was quite young. It may be this family tradition that led Henry to his love of soccer today. As for golf, I asked AJ who he would say is his favorite player. Right now he’s without one thanks to LIV Golf. His former favorite player, Phil Mickelson, who also plays golf left-handed like AJ, went to play for LIV so now he’s trying to find a new favorite. He went on to explain that he does now like Tiger Woods because he’s getting older and he supports old people doing well in sports. That’s not quite the explanation I was expecting when he brought up Tiger Woods, but it does make a lot of sense.
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Franklin County Bar Association
100 Lincoln Way East, Suite E, Chambersburg, PA 17201
717-267-2032
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