Joseph Simon Lord III

Who was Joseph Simon Lord III?

Joseph Simon Lord III was a United States federal judge.

Lord was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received an A.B. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1933. He received an LL.B. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1936. He was in private practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1936 to 1961. He was in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945. He became the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1961.

On August 31, 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated Lord to a newly created seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Lord was nominated on August 31, 1961, confirmed by the United States Senate on September 14, 1961, and received his commission on September 15, 1961. He served as chief judge from 1971-1982. He assumed senior status on July 1, 1982, and continued to serve until his death in 1991.

In Randazzo v. Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., 117 F.R.D. 557, Lord famously wrote, "Counsel brazenly, discourteously, defiantly, arrogantly, insultingly and under the circumstances rather obtusely threw back into my face the very allegations I had held insufficient by reiterating and incorporating those same crippled paragraphs. The so-called 'amended complaint' itself cheekily informs me that these paragraphs allege the states of incorporation or principal places of business of the defendant corporations. Of course, any law school student knows that both the state of incorporation and principal place of business must be diverse, but I suppose I can hardly expect any more from counsel whose familiarity with Title 28 U.S.C. § 1332 could be no more than a friendly wave from a distance visible only through a powerful telescope".