Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Kenneth J. Horoho, a Pittsburgh attorney, was recently elected president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage Kenneth J. Horoho Jr. Job: Attorney and partner, Goldberg, Gruener, Gentile, Horoho & Avalli Age: 50 Hometown: Johnstown, resides in Mt. Lebanon Education: Bachelor's, accounting, St. Francis College, 1977; law degree, Duquesne University, 1980. Career: 1980-83: tax consultant, Touche Ross; 1983-87: associate, Raphael, Gruener & Raphael; 1987-93: partner, Raphael, Gruener & Raphael; 1993-present: partner, Goldberg, Gruener, Gentile, Horoho & Avalli. Listen in Excerpts of an interviews with Kenneth J. Horoho Jr., Pittsburgh attorney and new president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association: Talking about the group's task force on lawyer advertising, which he believes should be more tasteful. Talking about diversity issues in legal profession and how to keep more young, minority and female lawyers in Pittsburgh. Is there a glut of lawyers in Pennsylvania?

Kenneth J. Horoho Jr., a partner at Downtown law firm Goldberg Gruener Gentile Horoho & Avalli, was elected president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in June for a one-year term. The PBA has 29,000 members statewide.

Q: What are your goals as leader of the state bar association?

A: I have a couple different initiatives. The general theme is reminding lawyers and the public that lawyers are really leaders trained to be lawyers. They have great leadership qualities, which are sometimes dormant. During my installation speech, I suggested or challenged people to be an everyday leader and basically reminded them as lawyers we have an obligation to lead. That's how we're trained.

Q: What are some of your specific initiatives?

A: One is a Children's Outreach Initiative. It's comprised of mental health professionals, lawyers and judges. The idea is to identify needs of children across the state and to address the needs of children who are neglected or abused

I practice in the family law area, and when I go into smaller counties, they clearly don't have the same bundle of services as we do in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. When you go into smaller communities in say, Bedford or Fayette counties, social services are not fairly distributed.

So part of the initiative is to determine ways we can as a group collaborate and offer services ... such as a regional child advocacy center. If there is collaboration among the state Supreme Court, legislators, judges and mental health professionals, that's something lawyers can get involved with.

Q: You've said you're interested in working to prevent child predators on the Internet. How?

A: We're calling it Operation Safe Surf. When [Pennsylvania Attorney General] Tom Corbett first rolled out the program, mostly on the prosecution side, I came to him and said, "Why don't we as a state bar assist you in the educational part?" We'll train lawyers. We'll go into schools as advocates, ambassadors to assist in training parents and children on what to stay away from. We're trying to educate parents on simple rules like keeping the computer in a public place, not in the bedroom; what Web sites to stay away from; what you can block and not block.

We're really trying to get into the third, fourth and fifth grades more so than high school. There will be a training session [today] for volunteer lawyers at five different locations in the state.

Q: You've also mentioned diversity as a key issue you want to address.

A: We need to be more diverse, both as a community and a profession. So another initiative is to reach out to the Pittsburgh Public Schools and those schools with a higher population of minority students to encourage them to think about a professional life in law.

The Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline Program is a national program where the whole purpose is to mentor and encourage minority students. In that program, lawyers come in [to a school] for a whole semester of teaching and have two or three students assigned to them to mentor.

Q: Why does Pennsylvania have trouble attracting minority lawyers?

A: We do a nice job, especially locally, of getting minority interns, getting minorities into law school and getting them educated. Then in one or two years, they're taking off for Atlanta or Charlotte. They need to see more [minority] lawyers and need to be given an opportunity to ascend to leadership roles in their firms

Young African-American or Hispanic people are going to say, "I'm single. I'd rather be in Charlotte or Atlanta because I feel more comfortable there." We've got to get the business community and the political community involved with our efforts.

Otherwise, we can knock ourselves out, but still we are going to need to build up our diversity outside of law.

Q: Does the diversity initiative include women?

A: The state bar and local bars have the same issues: How do we retain younger lawyers and minority lawyers and get more women involved with leadership positions because really they're the future of our profession. We're graduating now [from law schools] about 50 percent women.

Q: Are you going to address lawyer advertising?

A: Ads that say we will guarantee results ... just make us look like we're out there strictly looking for the big, quick dollar. We have a task force [co-chaired by Pittsburgh lawyer Tom Cooper]. Really, the purpose is to educate lawyers to be more sensitive to lawyer advertising. We really need to upgrade it, make it more tasteful, make it more professional because clearly it's something that is striking a nerve with the public.

Q: Is there a glut of lawyers in the state?

A: I don't think there is a glut. I think we'll always be in need of good leaders of our community. That's why I welcome the opportunity to continue to encourage young people to pursue a profession in the law. Our challenge is, when they get out [of law school], to find a place for them, mentor them, work with our business community to make sure they stay in Pennsylvania. That's our job of helping the local economy.

There's not an overall glut of lawyers who are walking around unemployed. There might be a lot underemployed. And there might be some who need some assistance in securing positions. But I like to think there's a place for everybody inside and outside the law who is trained to and who can add something to our communities.

Q: Do you have other responsibilities besides promoting your agenda?

A: I'm finding out the other job as PBA president is to get out and see the 45 to 50 local bar associations. Despite technology and communication, they really want to see you in person, face to face. So there's a lot of travel time. There are scenic routes in Pennsylvania but not necessarily direct routes. I know where all the Starbucks are. But it's exciting if not exhilarating.

It's like being at the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh. [My son and I] went down as soon as the gates opened and stayed until the last pitch. Boy, it's fun being around talented players. When I go to various counties, it's easier for me to go down the Turnpike and on to Route 219 knowing that I'm going to be involved with and around talented players.