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Cynthia Baldwin is a former justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She also served as the first general counsel for the Pennsylvania State University, and in that capacity, she gained some national attention during the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.

The Hon. Cynthia A. Baldwin was the first African-American woman elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and only the third African American and second African-American woman to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She retired from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2008. After her retirement from the Court, she became a partner with the international law firm, Duane Morris LLP and then served as the first General Counsel for the Pennsylvania State University. A Fulbright Scholarship Lecturer on the Law Faculty of the University of Zimbabwe in 1994, Justice Baldwin is serving a second term on the Fulbright Association Board in Washington, D.C. where she was recently elected Vice Chair. She has chaired the boards of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities (AGB) and the Pennsylvania State University as well as serving on the board of Duquesne University. She also serves on the board of Vibrant Pittsburgh and the Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University as well as the Duquesne University Law Advisory Committee. A Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, she recently retired from the corporate board of Koppers, Inc. Among her many awards are the ATHENA Award, the Heinz History Center History Maker Award and the HistoryMakers Award.

Justice Baldwin has also been featured in the following Marquis publications: Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in American Politics, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who of American Women, and Who’s Who in Emerging Leaders in America. She is also the recipient of several honorary doctorates from prestigious universities.

In recognition of outstanding contributions to her profession and the Marquis Who’s Who community, Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin is featured on Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievers website.

Education

Cynthia Baldwin received both her bachelor's degree (in English) and her master’s degree (in American literature) from the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). After working as a secondary school teacher, an English instructor and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Penn State’s Greater Allegheny Campus, she subsequently earned her juris doctor degree from Duquesne University School of Law. At Duquesne she was a member of the law review and is now a Duqusene University Board Member Emerita. Post law school, Justice Baldwin continued her studies at several universities, including New York University (NYU) School of Law, Harvard Law School and the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada. She has received certificates from the NYU Appellate Judges series, the American Academy of Judicial Education and the National Judicial College.

Legal career

During law school, Cynthia Baldwin was a Law clerk at Hollinhead and Mendelson. After receiving her law degree she was a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship Staff Attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services from 1980 to 1981. From 1981-1986, she was a Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, becoming the Prosecuting Attorney-In-Charge of the Western Regional Office of Attorney General, Bureau of Consumer Protection in 1983. After teaching at Duquesne University School of Law, she rose to the bench in 1989, becoming the first black woman elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. Baldwin served in this capacity for sixteen years in the Civil, Family and Juvenile Divisions. Then, in 2006, she was appointed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Supreme Court by Governor Ed Rendell. After retiring from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in January 2008, but before becoming Penn State's General Counsel, she became a partner in the international law firm of Duane Morris, LLP. There, her focus was on appellate litigation and not-for-profit issues. Following her service at Duane Morris, LLP and Penn State, Justice Baldwin utilized her considerable legal experience to do mediations and arbitrations until 2020.

Justice Baldwin has served in both visiting and adjunct law professorships at Duquesne University. Justice Baldwin also taught in the Widener School of Law Intensive Trial Advocacy Program and lectures widely, both nationally and internationally in constitutional law and jurisprudence.

In 1995, Justice Baldwin was on a team sponsored by the American Bar Association, National Judicial Conference and D.C. Superior Court which conducted judicial education programs in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania; and in 1998, Justice Baldwin was chosen as part of a national team of five judges to go to Mainland China to do seminars for their judges, law professors and students. The group was sponsored by the National Committee for U.S.-China Relations and the United States Information Agency. Justice Baldwin was the only non-Federal judge chosen. In the summer of 2007, Justice Baldwin was selected to travel to Guinea to participate in a seminar addressing Freedom of Expression.

Justice Baldwin is very active with the International Association of Women Judges. Justice Baldwin has served as a guest scholar at the Wolfensohn Center of the Brookings Institution working on anti-corruption projects in developing nations.

She is also a past gubernatorial appointee to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, serving for twelve years and is a past member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.

She is a past president of Duquesne University’s Law Alumni board and served on its search committee for the Law School Dean. Justice Baldwin is a member of and formerly co-chaired the Law School’s Law Advisory Committee. Justice Baldwin is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, a former Master in the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Inns of Court and the Matrimonial Inns of Court. She is or has been a member of the International Association of Women Judges, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Allegheny County Bar Association, Homer S. Brown Law Association and the Women’s Bar Association and has served on the Commission for Justice Initiatives. She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum.

Baldwin is an alumna of Penn State, and served as the president of its alumni association from 1989-91. She also served as Chair of the Penn State Board of Trustees from 2004-2007.

In January 2010, she was recruited to come to Penn State as the University's first general counsel, to establish the Office of General Counsel and assist in recruiting a permanent general counsel. She began that position in February of 2010 and the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke in the fall of that year. One news report in July 2012 indicated that Baldwin, in her capacity as General Counsel, recommended that then-Penn State president Graham Spanier reject calls for an independent body overseeing the school's athletic programs. Additionally, her role was questioned in the case of the potential criminal cases against Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President for Finance & Business Gary Schultz. When Curley and Schultz appeared before the grand jury, they told court officials that Baldwin was their attorney, but according to Lanny Davis she was only representing the university on that occasion; Baldwin never denied that she was their attorney, but always maintained that she represented both only in their capacity as agents of the University which was position supported both by the Office of Attorney General and the grand jury judge. On April 9, 2013, Judge Barry Feudale issued a 16-page ruling rejecting Messrs. Spanier's (former Penn State President), Schultz's and Curley's request to omit Presentment 29 from the investigation. In denying the motion to throw out Baldwin's testimony, Feudale ruled that he did not have jurisdiction to quash the presentment but, if it were decided that jurisdiction did fall to him, that he did not believe Baldwin's testimony violated any attorney-client privileges. Judge Feudale further stated in his Opinion:[w]hen attorney Baldwin appeared before this court with witness[es] Curley and Schultz, the court was aware attorney Baldwin was General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer and Vice President of PSU." [Judge Feudale also stated that senior executives of an organization, like Mr. Schultz, Mr. Curley and Mr. Spanier, are usually represented by that organization's counsel.] Judge Feudale further wrote that "Spanier, Curley and Schultz are "highly educated" men who had positions of considerable influence at PSU as well as inferentially, knowledge about important events that impact the reputation of the university; and it therefore strains credulity to infer that they were somehow deluded or misrepresented by attorney Baldwin. Judge Feudale went on to state that he believed that the defendants' motion "lacks merit in fact and law"

In his Opinion, Judge Feudale confirmed that he was not advised, and he had no reason to believe, that Mr. Schultz and Mr. Curley were targets of the investigation. Judge Feudale also acknowledged that there was persuasive evidence that Mr. Schultz, Mr. Curley and Mr. Spanier withheld relevant evidence from Ms. Baldwin. Tim Curley, Penn State's former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, retired vice president for finance and business were arrested and charged by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General for allegedly perjuring themselves before the grand jury about what they knew about the Sandusky affair. The charges include perjury, obstruction of justice and endangering the welfare of a child. Mr. Curley, along with Mr. Schultz, Graham Spanier and now deceased Coach Joe Paterno have also been cited by the Freeh Report as engaging in a cover up of Sandusky's abuse activities.

Although no one had filed a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Council (ODC) which, until then, had always been the normal procedure, an investigation was begun in 2012 and two disciplinary letters were sent to Justice Baldwin’s lawyers. The first full hearing on the ethical issues occurred two years later before President Judge Hoover. Judge Hoover issued three sealed opinions and a public opinion in January 2015 following the hearings in Dauphin County on November 20 and 21, 2014 during which all of the defendants and Justice Baldwin testified. It was the only time that the defendants and Justice Baldwin testified during a hearing before a judge.

As stated on page 27 of the publicly released Memorandum Opinion and Order, Judge Hoover held as follows: “We find that, in all matters related to their appearances before the grand jury, including preparation for such appearances, Ms. Baldwin represented each Defendant in his capacity as an agent of the University conducting University business, not in an individual, personal capacity.” Judge Hoover went on to hold: “Thus, in their roles as agents of the University, the Defendants received representation and no denial of counsel occurred.”

Judge Hoover also held: “We also find that the record does not support a divergence of interests of the Defendants as agents from those of the privilege holder, the University, of which Ms. Baldwin was aware, nor a conflict among the Defendants. No apparent conflict of interest precluded her representation of them in their capacities as agents of the University conducting University business.”

Finally, Judge Hoover held: “We further find that the University, as the holder of the privilege, waived its attorney-client privilege, and that any disclosure of information related to the ongoing investigation of Sandusky fell within the terms of the waiver. Therefore, no violations of the attorney-client privilege occurred.”

Judge Hoover also determined that the defendants were not credible and that Ms. Baldwin was credible.

In 2016, the Pennsylvania Superior Court overruled the lower court although Baldwin was not a party or a participant, was not represented and was granted no due process rights. In November 2017, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania filed a Public Petition for Discipline against Baldwin. A Hearing Committee was appointed by the Disciplinary Board to hear the matter. After a two day thorough evidentiary hearing during which the Office of Disciplinary Counsel presented no fact witnesses, the hearing committee, performing a legal analysis, and analyzing the evidence, issued a unanimous report and recommendation on October 26, 2018, that Baldwin acted at all times in a proper, ethical and competent manner and therefore there should be no discipline. The hearing committee also concluded that “the findings of the Superior Court in the case may not be considered admissible as evidence against the respondent to the extent they were rendered in a proceeding in which the respondent was not a party.” Both Grand Jury Judge Feudale and former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille wrote opinions stating that Justice Baldwin did nothing wrong and that the allegations are groundless. , In a highly unusual move, the ODC surprisingly filed exceptions to the Hearing Committee’s unanimous Report and Recommendation on or about November 14, 2018. After the media wrote about the Hearing Committee’s 74 page Report and Recommendation, the Disciplinary Board contacted media to tell them that she was not cleared and posted the letter on their website for months. This is an unheard action.

The Disciplinary Board panel heard the appeal in Philadelphia on January 4, 2019. The Disciplinary Board subsequently issued its Report and Recommendations on March 8, 2019, recommending public censure and, unprecedently overruling the Hearing Committee’s evidentiary record, findings of fact, credibility determinations and conclusions of law. Ms. Baldwin appealed to the Supreme Court and the case was heard on September 12, 2019.

After immediate recusal by Justices Baer and Todd, Chief Justice Saylor recused after being shown the Feudale affidavit. According to Judge Feudale’s Affidavit in 2012 Chief Justice Saylor did the following that have ethical consequences: He tried to speak to the grand jury judge (Feudale) in the Sandusky case about the case; he disclosed that a disciplinary complaint was being filed against Justice Baldwin knowing the disciplinary process is confidential; he asked for assistance from the grand jury judge in gathering confidential information to support the disciplinary case against Justice Baldwin; and he made a statement which showed that he was beginning a disciplinary process against Justice Baldwin because of bias and vindictiveness.

Following Chief Justice Saylor’s recusal, only four members of the Supreme Court participated in the case, siding with the Disciplinary Board in February, 2020, and ordering Public Reprimand as discipline. The whole process had taken eight (8) years, unheard of for a disciplinary matter. ,

On February 19, 2020, the Court in an opinion written by Justice Christine Donahue stated the reason for the public reprimand after recognizing that “the effect of the publication of this Opinion recounting Respondent’s violations of our rules…is, in itself , a public censure,” was because “Respondent has never contemplated, much less expressed, remorse.” The Court negated the fact that Ms. Baldwin had maintained that she had not breached the Code of Ethics and that two evidentiary hearings had agreed with her assertions. , ,

Craig McCoy of “The Philadelphia Inquirer” published an investigative article on July 23, 2020, that revealed the release of the affidavit sworn by Barry Feudale, the Grand Jury Judge in the Sandusky case that stated he was approached by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Tom Saylor in July, 2012 for a “private” conversation. [The URL for the “The Philadelphia Inquirer” article is: https://www.inquirer.com/news/pa-chief-justice-thomas-saylor-cynthia-baldwin-minority-agenda-reprimand-20200723.html

According to Judge Barry Feudale’s affidavit, Justice Saylor stated “that he was aware of the Grand Jury’s work on the Penn State matter and that a ‘lawyer’s disciplinary complaint’ was forthcoming against Cynthia Baldwin as a result of her actions in that investigation. I had no information about such a complaint but he was clear that it would be investigated. He specifically stated that he expected me to assist in every way with providing information in support of the disciplinary investigation. I was stunned.”

Judge Feudale stated in his Affidavit that “Justice Saylor responded that this assistance and discipline was necessary because “she caused us a lot of trouble when she was on the Supreme Court with her minority agenda.”

Judge Feudale further stated in his Affidavit that “Although I have been troubled by these matters since they occurred, I am now revealing the specifics of this conversation as having seen the Decisions of the Disciplinary Board against …. Cynthia Baldwin by which [her] professional standing and personal reputation [is] being called into serious question …”

Subsequent to the appearance of the July 23, 2020, Philadelphia Inquirer article revealing Judge Feudele’s Affidavit, The Black Political Empowerment Project and others have filled ethical complaints against Chief Justice Saylor and the Pennsylvania’s judicial ethics panel is investigating whether Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor breached confidentiality, pressured a grand jury presiding judge and made a racial comment against a former colleague. , ,

In the Philadelphia Inquirer article, dated August 26, 2020, entitled, “Pennsylvania’s chief Supreme Court justice faces an ethics inquiry over an alleged racial insult,” former Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, Saylor’s predecessor, said “only the chief justice, not any of the six others on the court (which Saylor was at the time), should talk with grand jury judges. Academic experts also questioned Saylor’s conduct, with one saying it “smacks of an abuse of power.”

Other activities

Baldwin is a former Fulbright lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, where she lectured and conducted research on constitutional issues for the Zimbabwe Supreme Court prior to the changes made by President Robert Mugabe. She has also worked on many worldwide ethics issues including participating in anti-corruption projects for developing nations through the Wolfensohn Center of the Brookings Institution.

Civic and professional activities

• Koppers Director, Member of Audit Committee and Member of Safety, Health & Environmental Committee Koppers • Board member, Pittsburgh Chapter of National Association of Corporate Directors • Board member, Vibrant Pittsburgh • Advisory Board member, Penn State Greater Allegheny • Baldwin is active with the International Women's Forum and the International Association of Women Judges • National Public Radio’s (WESA’s) News Excellence Committee Member

Justice Baldwin, a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, has received many honors and awards and is the recipient of six honorary doctorates.

==Honors and Awards== Some of the honors and awards that have been bestowed upon Justice Baldwin are: 2015 Practitioner-in-Residence, New Leadership, Chatham University 2011 The Century Club of Distinguished Duquesne University Alumni

               Pittsburgh Courier Fifty Women of Excellence
               Neighborhood Legal Services Tribute to Honorable Alumni

2010 Heinz History Makers’ Award

               McKeesport Heritage Center Honoree

2009 International Women’s Forum, Women Who Make a Difference 2009 Honorary Doctorate, Susquehanna University 2008 Allegheny County Bar Association, Women in the Law, Carol Los Mansmann Helping Hand Award 2008 Honorary Doctorate, Duquesne University 2008 Honorary Doctorate, Chatham University 2008 National Sojourner Truth Meritorious Service Award, NANPBW 2008 “The HistoryMaker” Award 2007 Athena Award Recipient 2007 Robert I. Shadle Legal Excellence and Professionalism Award, The Herbert B. Cohen Chapter of the American Inns of Court 2007 Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Widener University School of Law 2007 Honorary Doctor of Humanities, Carlow University 2006 A. Leon Higginbotham Award, PBA Minority Attorney Committee 2006 A. Leon Higginbotham Award, Barrister’s Association 2004 Woman of Spirit, Carlow College 2003 Children’s Service Award, Mental Health Association of Allegheny County 1999 Honorary Doctor of Laws, Point Park College 1999 Pittsburgher of the Century – African American – Pittsburgh Magazine 1999 Mon Valley Newsmaker of the Century, McKeesport Daily News 1999 Hollander Leadership Award, Chatham College 1999 Woman of the Year Award, Women’s Law Association, Duquesne University 1998 Woman of the Year in Law and Government Award, Vectors/Pittsburgh Awarded in 1999 1998 Susan B. Anthony Award, Women’s Bar Association of Western Pennsylvania 1996 Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania recipient 1996 Outstanding Achievement Award, Duquesne Law School Alumni Association 1995 Distinguished Alumna Award, Penn State University 1995 Black Trailblazer Award in the Field of Law, Renaissance Publication

Publications

• “Combating Judicial Corruption in Uganda”, 2009
• “All About Family Court,” An Answer and Activity Book for Children in Court, 1999.
• "Avoiding Abuse, (of and under state and federal acts)," Pittsburgh Legal Journal, p. 1, Dec. 1994
• “Silhouettes,” (History of African Americans in the Allegheny County Court System), Pittsburgh Legal Journal, p.3, 1989.
• “Professionalism," Pittsburgh Legal Journal, Vol. 139, No.2, p.43, Feb., 1991.