The 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards
Presented to Dan Phelan, Esq., '80 & Lou Rulli, Esq., '74
November 11, 2010
The Westin Mt. Laurel Hotel
6:00PM - 9:00PM

Dan Phelan
Dan Phelan has been with GlaxoSmithKline for twenty-nine years and is currently Chief of Staff with global responsibilities for Corporate Strategy and Development, Human Resources, Information Technology, Real Estate and Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety, Security and Aviation.  He is a member of the Corporate Executive Team.  Prior to his current role, he was Senior Vice-President, Human Resources from 1994-2008.

He joined the company as Manager of Labor Relations in 1981 and in 1986 was named Vice-President, Employee Relations.  In 1988, he became Vice President, Personnel for the U.S. Pharmaceutical Division.  He later became Senior-Vice President, Operations and Administration for the global Research & Development organization.

Dan is a graduate of Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ.  He served as an officer on active duty and the reserves in the U.S. Army Medical Services Corps from 1971-1977.  He received a Master’s degree in higher education administration from the Ohio State University.  He was a director in the Office of Student Services at Ohio State for three years.  He attended Rutgers School of Law-Camden, where he earned his law degree in 1980.  He was an associate in the labor department of Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell and Hippel prior to joining SmithKline Corporation.  He is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Dan is a member of the Board of Directors of Tyco Electronics.  He is also a member of the CEO Council for Growth of Select Greater Philadelphia which focuses on initiatives designed to stimulate jobs and new business opportunities in the Greater Philadelphia economy.  He has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council of Rutgers School of Law-Camden and was elected to the Rutgers University Board of Overseers in 2009.  He has also been a lecturer on comparative corporate governance at the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations Executive Master’s Program.

Dan has published in the areas of public sector collective bargaining, conflict management and unionization of faculty in higher education.  His most recent publication is “Picking the Right Insider for CEO Succession” in the January 2009 Harvard Business Review.  

Dan is married and has two daughters and two step-daughters who are currently attending Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, Boston University, Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University.  Dan’s wife, Vicki, is Managing Director of the Life Sciences Practice for EquaTerra, an outsourcing consulting firm.

Louis Rulli
Louis Rulli is an expert in public interest law, legislation, litigation, and clinical legal education, and he has written and lectured extensively on access to justice for the poor. In 2006, he received the Penn University’s university-wide Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. Prior to joining the Penn Law faculty, Rulli was the executive director of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. He is a past chairman of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention, a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates, and a co-chair of PBA efforts to establish a statewide student loan repayment assistance program. He serves on the PBA’s Legal Access Task Force and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Task Force on Civil Gideon. He also serves on the governance boards of Philadelphia Legal Assistance and Community Legal Services, and is a frequent trainer and consultant to civil legal aid programs. In 2010, he was appointed by the Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association to serve as the first Pro Bono and Delivery of Legal Services Advisor to the Cabinet of the Association. In this capacity, he serves as a voting member of the Association’s Board of Governors.

Rulli is only the second person to receive the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to an individual who has demonstrated substantial leadership in the creation and continuation of pro bono programs. Rulli has received numerous other awards for his work and was selected by Philadelphia Magazine as one of Philadelphia’s best attorneys for public interest law.