Kenneth Jarin is a partner in the law firm Ballard Spahr LLP. For a significant part of his career both as a city solicitor and private practitioner, he specialized in labor and employment law, serving as chief labor negotiator for many cities and states including the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. More recently, he founded and led the firm’s public policy and political law compliance practice.
In government, Jarin served as Chief Deputy City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia early in his legal career. During the Clinton-Gore Administration, he was a Board Member on the National Council on the Arts, the governing body of the National Endowment for the Arts. Recently, he was appointed by President Biden to Chair the International Broadcasting Advisory Board which oversees the United States Agency for Global Media. Previously, he chaired the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which governs Pennsylvania’s 14 public universities. In the non-profit arena, Jarin has served as a Board Member of the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, the Anti-Defamation League, the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
Jarin grew up in Oreland, Pennsylvania, where he worked his way through college as a mailman. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his J.D. from Temple University.