| Info | Alan Hertzberg, Judge for Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, knows the value of hard work, and has a career of working hard for his community. The third son of Martin and Ruth, Judge Hertzberg was instilled at childhood with the importance of having a strong work ethic from his mother, and a commitment to honesty and fairness towards everyone from his father. It is that ethos that has been the keystone in his personal life, throughout his years practicing law, in his eleven years on City Council, his countless years working with community organizations, and now as a judge. It was through tragedy early in his life, when his brother Eric succumbed to complications from dystonia, a debilitating muscular disorder that galvanized for him the importance of taking nothing for granted and always looking out for those in less fortunate positions. This is reflected in his years of pro bono child advocacy and working with organizations like the Three Rivers Center for Independent Living Foundation , in order to install ramps for wheelchair access into government buildings. It was his work with the Three Rivers Center and other independent living organizations that in November of 1998, earned him the Leonard C. Staisey Award, in recognition of an individual who has made a significant contribution to promoting the rights of people with disabilities, and influencing societal awareness of the Independent Living movement. Since he was eleven years old, Alan Hertzberg was an active child who held several jobs among them paperboy, maintenance worker for a neighborhood community center, and life guard and swim instructor at Scott Township Park. While at Chartiers Valley High School, he continued to work numerous part-time jobs while excelling in academics as well as playing competitive sports all year round. Even during law school, he managed to bartend at local restaurants and taverns like Sandroni's Pub, Alex Tambellini's on Wood Street, the Rusty Scupper, and Scorecard Harry's. Judge Hertzberg has a long history of playing competitive and team oriented sports. From basketball and baseball when he was younger, to making All-State in swimming and as a football standout both during high school and college, to his short stint as a linebacker in semi-professional football with the Pittsburgh Colts, to his annual participation in the Pittsburgh Triathlon since its inception, Judge Hertzberg has always valued sports as a way of strengthening personal character and bringing communities together. Recently, he was diagnosed with two arthritic hips that have become an obstacle to an active life of running, swimming and skiing, but Judge Hertzberg refuses to sit out or sit still either on the track or pool, or the campaign trail. Alan graduated from Chartiers Valley High School in 1975 and received his B.A. in Economics and English Literature in 1979. He received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. It was in Law school that Alan was a member of the prestigious law review and graduated Cum laude. Alan began his practice as an attorney in 1983, and in the same year, took on numerous pro bono child advocacy appointments from Juvenile Court. During this work, he was appointed to represent two young children who were placed in foster care because of parental neglect. He represented them throughout the numerous review hearings, meetings with social workers, foster parents, and ultimately in their adoption. Alan has also represented clients in numerous cases pro bono, such as the Scott Township Nature Conservancy in preserving green-space from development, and the West Pittsburgh Partnership Community Development Corporation in its efforts to stop the closing of the police station in Pittsburgh's West End. In 1993, Alan won a City Council seat to represent the people of District 2, a district that includes the western part of the city and Mt. Washington. While there he was Chairman of the Committee on Finance and the Budget, President Pro Tem, and authored many City Ordinances, including laws on student truancy that later became the model for a state-wide program. He was a champion for the rights of owners of historically designated property; he helped in the creation of city employee performance evaluations, and ordinances on dangerous dogs, noise control and vehicle towing. He fought to make the City Council Chamber accessible to the physically disabled, and to create hundreds of curb cuts on street corners across the city. Alan is the proud father of Daniel (20), and Kara (16), from a previous marriage, and in 2000, his family grew by one, when he and his wife of seven years, Mari, adopted Michael (now five), from Russia, through the International Assistance Group Adoption Agency. |
