Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan poses for a picture with the Pennridge High School pre-law club and Superintendent Dr. Angelo Berrios Photo by John Worthington | The Reporter.
Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan recently visited Pennridge High School to share career insights and advice with the school’s pre-law club.
Joined by Superintendent Dr. Angelo Berrios, Khan addressed roughly 20 students in the school district’s office board room.
“I’m really eager to get out and spend as much time as I can with the community, not just people who are old enough to vote for district attorney but young people, especially,” said Khan, noting that a similar high school forum inspired him to become a prosecutor.
Khan spoke at length about his legal career, receiving his law degree from the University of Chicago before working in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and later the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While a federal prosecutor, he led sweeping corruption cases against city officials in Allentown and Reading.
He later transitioned to civil law, suing Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid epidemic and the developers of the largest social media companies for harming youth mental health. He’s now bringing his civil law background into the DA’s office, having recently brought a “first-of-its-kind” lawsuit against a Dublin landlord for subjecting tenants to unsafe housing conditions for over a decade.
“The District Attorney has the power to bring civil lawsuits, and for a variety of reasons, it hasn’t really been used before,” said Khan. “I thought that’s just not acceptable because we have these laws on the books that could really help people.”
One student asked Khan about his law school experience. In response, Khan revealed that one of his professors was former President Obama, whose congressional campaign he later worked on. Khan also worked with a legal aid group for juveniles charged with murder.
“It was a very important and impactful experience,” said Khan. “It was the stuff outside the classroom that had the biggest impression on me.”
Another student asked about stress management. Khan replied that many legal professionals experience “second-hand trauma” and often resort to quitting or drinking. He underscored the importance of setting boundaries and highlighted a wellness committee he formed.
“It’s really important to take care of our people,” said Khan.
A third student asked about Khan’s best and worst days on the job. Khan cited his best day as the present day and his worst day as the day when a serial rapist was acquitted by a jury. The defendant was later rearrested for a separate incident and convicted, Khan said.
“So it was a bad day, but I didn’t give up just because there was a big setback, and we did the work,” said Khan.
As the meeting concluded, Khan advised the students to embrace three core attributes — a strong work ethic, a positive reputation and good character.
“That is a challenge this country has right now. We have a lot of folks in government, in the corporate world and other positions where we need people with good character to be in those positions,” said Khan. “So if people generally say good things about you because you’re honest, a hard worker and a person of high integrity and high character, I think you can do whatever you want.”
Berrios took time to express gratitude to Khan for both his visit and public service.
“He could easily have a law firm billing 5, 6, 7 thousand bucks an hour, but he clearly has a calling to serve our community,” said Berrios. “He’s also giving back to young people and answering answers about his pathway and providing a very down-to-earth approach. Who knows? We could have some future lawyers in here.”
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