Thomas W. Jennings, 69, lawyer for FOP
Thomas W. Jennings was raised in a union town, Scranton, the son of an official of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Thomas W. Jennings was raised in a union town, Scranton, the son of an official of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
So it's not surprising that he grew up to become one of Philadelphia's top labor union lawyers.
Mr. Jennings, 69, a longtime resident of Lafayette Hill, died Tuesday, May 24, of respiratory failure at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
A cofounder of the Philadelphia-based Jennings Sigmond P.C., he spent 40 years fighting on behalf of unions in the region representing teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others. One of his chief clients was Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.
He handled all the big arbitration cases for the FOP.
Those included the case of Officer Jonathan Josey, who was fired after being filmed punching a woman at the city's 2012 Puerto Rican Day Parade. Josey was later acquitted, and Mr. Jennings won him his job back.
He did the same for six officers charged with routinely beating and robbing drug suspects. When a federal jury found them not guilty last year, Mr. Jennings got them back on the force.
"If it was a tough case, he wanted it," said Stephen Holroyd, a partner at Jennings Sigmond P.C., who considered Mr. Jennings a mentor. "At some firms the guys whose names are on the door don't work. They glad-hand and take people out to dinner. But that was not Tom's approach."
Philadelphia FOP president John McNesby said he worked closely with Mr. Jennings and hardly a day went by that they didn't speak.
"His heart and soul was representing police officers," McNesby said. "He was one of the best – if not the best – attorney I have ever worked with."
Mr. Jennings was born Dec. 30, 1946, to John and Gertrude Yarosheski Jennings. One of six siblings, he grew up learning to value the work of labor unions from his father, an officer with the Scranton IBEW union, said his wife, Barbara Jennings.
"He felt unions gave the working man what was needed to get ahead," she said. "He believed unions gave them a voice. That was his passion."
Mr. Jennings graduated from Scranton's Cathedral High School in 1964, from the University of Scranton in 1968, and from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1971.
While at Scranton, he met his wife, then Barbara Ancas, who was a student at nearby Nesbitt Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. They married in Exeter, Pa., in August 1969.
Shortly after graduating from law school, Mr. Jennings worked briefly for the state Attorney General's Office before cofounding the firm that bears his name in 1975.
During his career, Mr. Jennings represented labor unions with only one member and others with tens of thousands of members, and he successfully argued cases before every level of court in both the state and federal judicial systems, as well as every labor-related administrative body, according to his firm.
"Tom was a lawyer, but he grew up a working-class kid in Scranton," Holroyd said. "He knew how working people talked, he knew how they walked, and he knew how important a paycheck was to them. He was just a down-to-earth guy who got an education."
Mr. Jennings' leisure time was spent target shooting and at a vacation home in the Poconos, his wife said.
In addition to his wife of 46 years, Mr. Jennings is survived by a brother and three sisters. He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother.
Services were private.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Bowmanstown Rod & Gun Club, 525 Club Rd., Palmerton, Pa. 18071, or the Montgomery County SPCA, 19 E. Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, Pa. 19428.
215-854-4172 @mensahdean