Philadelphia Bar Association Recognizes Joseph Tate with Citizens Bank Achievement Award

The Philadelphia Bar Association has honored Dechert senior counsel Joseph Tate with the Citizens Bank Achievement Award. The award recognizes significant accomplishments in improving the administration of justice in Philadelphia.

Mr. Tate focuses his practice on defending U.S. and foreign corporations, executives, lawyers and others against allegations of white collar crime, with particular emphasis on securities, antitrust and other regulatory issues. In addition to maintaining a prominent antitrust and commercial litigation practice at Dechert, he serves as a longtime board member and fundraiser for Community Legal Services and was a former chair of the Board of Consultors at Villanova Law School. Mr. Tate also supports Villanova’s Walter A. Lucas ’88 Public Interest Fellowship Program, which funds law students' summer work in the public interest sector.

Mr. Tate and his wife, Detta, have created a Loan Repayment Assistance Program for recent graduates who enter public interest law, a program which was renamed in their honor in 2019. Additionally, he is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and formerly served as a faculty member at the Bar Association’s Trial Advocacy Program.

“In my early years of private practice, I would ask myself what really is a Philadelphia lawyer. A Philadelphia lawyer is someone who is knowledgeable and intelligent and who could write a great brief. But the Philadelphia lawyer is also someone who took on unpopular cases, who took care of the forgotten people,” Mr. Tate said. “We should all aspire to be that Philadelphia lawyer.”

The award was presented at the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2024 Annual Meeting held at the Crystal Tea Room.

About Dechert 

Dechert is a global law firm that advises asset managers, financial institutions and corporations on issues critical to managing their business and their capital – from high-stakes litigation to complex transactions and regulatory matters. We answer questions that seem unsolvable, develop deal structures that are new to the market and protect clients' rights in extreme situations. Our nearly 1,000 lawyers across 19 offices globally focus on the financial services, private equity, private credit, real estate, life sciences and technology sectors.