GREENVILLE, PA – Dr. James W. Ummer, Esq., ’67, H’07 partner at Rothman Gordon, P.C. in Pittsburgh, will be the keynote speaker at Thiel College’s annual academic honors convocation at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19 in the William A. Passavant Memorial Center.

Honors Convocation is one of the college’s most prestigious events during the academic year. During this event, 307 students—including scholarship recipients, academic honorary members and dean’s list honorees—will be recognized for their academic achievements earned during the 2006–07 academic year. Freshmen scholarship recipients also will be announced.

Ummer, a member of Thiel’s class of 1967 and a former member of the college’s board of trustees, received an honorary doctor of laws from Thiel in May of this year. He will deliver the keynote address to faculty, staff and student honorees and their families during the event.

Ummer currently is a partner at Rothman Gordon, P.C., in the law firm’s estates, trusts and taxation department where his practice is focused on planning for privately owned businesses and families of substantial net worth.

Prior to joining Rothman Gordon in 2003, Ummer was a partner in the trusts and estates group at Reed Smith, LLP, and a shareholder in the corporate/commercial group of Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir, P.C. He also worked at Buchanan Ingersoll, P.C., in Pittsburgh for 17 years as a tax, estate, and business attorney and later as partner and chairman of the firm’s tax section. He began his professional career as a trust officer with PNC Bank, focusing on personal and charitable trust administration and decedent estate administration.

Ummer earned his law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1976 and later pursued specialized post-graduate work at the University of Wisconsin Law School (estate planning), Oxford University/Exeter College (international finance) and Cambridge University/Emmanuel College (law).

He and his wife, Janet, live in Pittsburgh. They have two sons and one grandson.  

Thiel College, located in Greenville, Pa., is a liberal arts, sciences and professional studies college related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

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