Leon King

JUDGE of the COURT of COMMON PLEAS

Leon KING

**Rated RECOMMENDED by The Philadelphia Bar Association

Leon King has a rich, deep and diverse legal background. He has tried over 300 cases. He has both civil and criminal law experiences. Mr. King has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in his long legal career. Mr. King began his legal career with the City of Philadelphia and for over a decade specialized in civil rights defense, personal injury defense, and employment law. He then left his legal practice with the city to serve as Commissioner of Prisons for the City of Philadelphia from 2002 to 2009. In 2009, he left the Prisons to return to legal work as a sole practitioner for 7 years and focused on civil rights litigation as a plaintiffs’ lawyer and also on employment, regulatory defense and other areas.  King returned to public service from 2016 to 2020 serving as Deputy Commissioner for the Baltimore City Jails.  Then in 2020 he returned to Philadelphia legal work as a sole practitioner working mainly on landlord/tenant, estates and employment. 

The Philadelphia Citizen wrote a great profile of Leon in the article linked here called, called the Black Gay Shabbat Observing Tap Shoe Wearing Philadelphian Running for Judge.  In that article he shares his personal story of how a judge gave him a second chance when he was a wayward teen, and how that Judge’s mercy has guided his own career in law. The article notes the importance of empathy as a guiding principle to Mr. King. Mr. King’s strong sense of empathy and his diverse experience make him well qualified to be a judge.