The Honorable Thomas I. Vanaskie, former Judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, is a member of Stevens & Lee’s Litigation Department. He co-chairs the firm’s Appellate Practice Group with Karl S. Myers and chairs the firm’s Mediation, Neutral Services and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. Judge Vanaskie was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2010 where he served with distinction for eight years, participating in and deciding many complex, high profile cases. Before 2010, he served as a district judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania for 16 years, including seven years as chief judge. In May of 2021, he was appointed by the President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association to serve as chair of a statewide task force to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of legal services and to make recommendations to mitigate the disruption of services resulting from future catastrophes. The task force generated a comprehensive report that will serve as the foundation for enhancing the use of technology to assure that legal services will be delivered despite widespread disasters.