Host Karen Oesterle catches up with one of her mentors, Loretta Orndorff, who recently retired after more than two decades at Cozen O’Connor. Loretta discusses her “zig-zag path to librarianship,” changes she’s observed over the course of her long career, her work on an important salary survey for law librarians, and more.
The Practising Law Librarian, part of the PLI Ever Current podcast, brings you conversations with — and for — the law librarian community. PLI is proud to offer resources to support the essential work of law librarians and practitioners including PLI PLUS, the award-winning legal research platform, and the PLI Librarian blog.
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Featured in this Episode
Loretta Orndorff
Loretta Orndorff joined Cozen O’Connor on April 7, 1997, and retired from there in February of 2021. After getting her Bachelor’s and Master of Library Science degrees, she continued to law school, completing her J.D. in short order.
She was Chief Librarian at Prickett Jones and worked as a reference librarian at Villanova Law School Library, returning to law firm work as Library Director at Dilworth Paxson before she moved on to Cozen O’Connor. Well-versed in academic library work, she spent her law library career primarily in private law librarianship and is a long-time faithful member of both AALL and PLL, later PLLIP. She enthusiastically supported her team members’ involvement in law librarian associations and was a constant supporter of other librarians and colleagues. She excelled in her relationships with legal vendors, served on the TR Advisory Board, and generously shared best practices with her fellow librarians at PLLIP, AALL, and local chapter conferences and events.
One of her primary gifts to the library community was her work on the AALL Biennial Salary Survey. Created in 1993, this survey evolved over time. In 2008, the AALL Economic Status of Law Librarians Committee worked closely with the AALL community to enhance and strengthen the survey’s relevance, credibility, and usefulness. A member of the committee during this time, Loretta believed that information shared benefited everyone and was committed to improving this tool for the good of all law librarians.
Among Loretta’s chief gifts to Cozen O’Connor were her skills in connecting, nurturing, and growing people. She trained and lifted up countless new law librarians during her career. She advised and encouraged them to do more than they believed possible. She recruited attorneys, legal publishing representatives, and many others into her beloved field of law librarianship and was a shining example of inclusion long before this was a concept.
