Patrick M. McKenna

Patrick has extensive experience guiding clients throughout complex commercial land development matters, from acquisition to planning, and through the permitting and land development phases. He has represented clients on matters including townhome developments, senior care homes, national fast-food franchise developments, manufacturing plants, and shopping center developments. His clients include numerous municipalities, zoning hearing boards, municipal authorities, and planning commissions in Chester and Delaware Counties, as well as private land owners and developers in subdivision, land development and zoning matters.

Patrick received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Saint Joseph’s University, and received his law degree, cum laude, from Widener University School of Law, where he was a Josiah Oliver Wolcott Fellow, serving as a law clerk to Delaware Supreme Court Justice Joseph T. Walsh.

Prior to joining Gawthrop, Patrick served as the law clerk to the Hon. Anthony A. Sarcione, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County, and as an associate attorney in a regional insurance defense firm. He is a board member for the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union. He is also a past President of the Board of Directors of Safe Harbor of Chester County, Inc., a shelter for single homeless men and women in Chester County. In addition, Patrick is a past President of the Hon. John E. Stively, Jr. American Inn of Court, a 2007 graduate of Leadership Chester County, an Assistant Editor to the Chester County Legal Reporter, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater West Chester. In 2015, Patrick was selected a seventh time as a “Pennsylvania Rising Star” by Philadelphia Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine.

Patrick has been a member of the Chester County Bar Association since 2002, and was most recently elected to the executive committee of the Association’s Board of Directors as its Treasurer. He is a past Chair of the Young Lawyers Division and a past Chair of the Judicial Evaluation Committee. He has been a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association since 2004, where he currently sits as a Zone 9 Delegate At-Large to the P.B.A. House of Delegates . In addition, Patrick was recently elected to the P.B.A. Municipal Law Section Council. Patrick is a Member of the Solicitor Section of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors and the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs.

Patrick also has extensive experience prosecuting and defending land use violations (enforcement cases) and matters under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, and has shared his knowledge at several seminars over the years.