About the Robert I. Shadle Legal Excellence and Professionalism Award

Judge Robert I. Shadle, served on the York County Bench for seventeen years before his death. During his term as judge, he served as President Judge and became a candidate for the Superior Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He sat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Criminal Rules committee as a both a valued member and vice president for many years. While small in stature he ranks as one of the giants of the York County Judiciary and the York County legal profession. Judge Shadle was a true scholar of the law. His extraordinary work ethic coupled with his knowledge assured that in each case tried before him the rule of law was paramount. Despite encountering extraordinary enormous community pressure on a number of matters that came before him he remained even tempered and impartial. All of Judge Shadle’s rulings applied the law and were fundamentally fair in application. He set the standard for Judicial temperament.  Judge Shadle combined all the professional aspirations of the Inn’s dedicated mission. Accordingly, the Inn’s Excellence award was named after Judge Robert I Shadle. 

About the Richard E. Kohler Civility and Ethics Award

The late Judge Richard E. Kohler was the Orphan’s Court Judge in the exclusive charge of the Orphan’s Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas of York County. Judge Kohler was a former member of the York City School Board had a strong sense of the York community.  His mantra was civility as evidenced by his consistent display of collegiality in the “lawyers reading room” and willingness to address inquiries from all lawyers regarding the law and the mechanics of resolving thorny Orphans’ Court issues. As a Judge, he was able to set aside personal biases, and consider all sides of the question, and then when resolving the decision, explain it in a fashion that made sense even to those who may disagree. While some may have considered his voluntary advice as ex parte contacts made with him, and through him relative to advancing particular cases that appeared before him in the Orphans’ Court, the overall design of his intervention was to advance the Judicial System in a civil fashion rather than to adversely impact upon it. He always observed the bounds imposed on Judicial discretion by precedent, Statute, or Constitutional text, and then through his wiles, came down with the right decision. He was the epitome of Civility.