Judge William H. Platt
Judge William H. Platt is currently serving his second elected term as President Judge. He is a graduate of Emmaus High School, Dickinson College (A.B., Honors in Economics, 1961), and the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania (J.D, 1964). He served in the U. S. Army Military Police Corps from 1964 to 1966. From 1976 to 1991, he was the District Attorney of Lehigh County, and before that, the Lehigh County Chief Public Defender. From 1994-1996, he was the Allentown City Solicitor. Judge Platt has published numerous legal articles, including a practice handbook on Pennsylvania Eyewitness Identification. He currently is the President of the Judge Donald E. Wieand American Inn of Courts, a member of the Board of Directors of the Lehigh County Bar Association, and Chairman of the Criminal Law Section of the Pennsylvania State Conference of Trial Judges. He was Chairman of the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1986 to 1992, and a member of the Committee beginning in 1982. Judge Platt is a past president and lifetime honorary board member of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, a member and past president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, a member and former member of the Board of the National District Attorneys Association, a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, a former member of the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges, and a member of the Lehigh County, the Pennsylvania and the American Bar Associations. He has been a member of the Executive Board of the Minsi Trails Council, B.S.A. since 1990, and, from 1991 to 1995, served as their legal counsel. Immediately prior to his election to the Court of Common Pleas, he was the partner in charge of the Allentown office of a Pittsburgh-based national law firm, a member of that firm's litigation department and the coordinator of its White Collar Crime Practice Group. Before becoming District Attorney, he was in private practice with the late Howard Yarus, Esquire, from 1967 through 1976, in a firm which ultimately became Yarus & Platt.
