Allentown, PA (November 13, 2009) – Judge Thomas Wallitsch (ret.), Member of Tallman Hudders & Sorrentino, the Pennsylvania office of Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A., has completed his assignment as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (“UNDP”) in the Republic of Maldives from October 22, 2009 through November 9, 2009. During these three weeks, Wallitsch met with the President , Chief Justice and other officials to discuss the capacity of the judiciary system and make recommendations to improve the existing framework of the country, comprised of nearly 1200 islands in the Indian Ocean. Wallitsch was able to make many recommendations about various issues facing the new judiciary, which he is currently formulating into a formal report.
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations’ global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help their people build a better life. This organization is active in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and their wide range of partners. The focus of the UNDP is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, environment and energy, and HIV/AIDS.
“The UNDP effort is extremely important to the development of involved countries, aiding them in becoming independent, modern nations of the world. I have served as a senior judicial advisor in Morocco, Algeria, Afghanistan, and the Ukraine. I look forward to seeing citizens benefit from the development of and improvements to Maldive’s judicial system. I only wish I had more time to experience the beautiful scenery,” says Wallitsch.
Judge Wallitsch, a member of the firm, heads the Litigation Group at the Pennsylvania office. He maintains an active practice in the areas of alternative dispute resolution (mediation and arbitration) and appellate practice.
In 1991, he was appointed and then elected to the Lehigh County Court of Common Please bench where he served until 2006. During those fifteen years, Judge Wallitsch was the administrative judge of the civil division of the Court and was active in judicial matters throughout the state. He served as Chairman of the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of Trial Judges for nine years, was a member, vice-chair and chair of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Appellate Court Procedural Rules Committee, and served as a member of the Judicial Conduct Board of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Judge Walltisch has also served the international judicial community in a number of ways. In 2005, he was the first resident liaison of the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative in Morocco. In 2006 he was named as Senior Judicial Advisor to USAID’S Afghanistan rule of Law Project and was stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan for seven months in charge of the court administration and judicial training components of this project. Thereafter he has served as a consultant to USAID’s Rule of Law Projects in Algeria and the Ukraine.