Michael Hardiman, Esq. currently serves as a commissioner for the PHRC. Governor Wolf appointed Hardiman, with the advice and consent of the Pennsylvania State Senate, to a five-year term that became effective on June 4, 2016.
Hardiman previously worked for the PHRC for over 33 years. For the last seven years of his career at the PHRC, he served as Chief Counsel. He retired in July 2012. He began his employment with the commission in January 1979 as an Assistant General Counsel in the commission's Harrisburg Regional Office. In July 1982, he was promoted to supervising attorney and moved to the Philadelphia Regional Office where he remained until June 2005 and his appointment as Chief Counsel. His primary work concentration centered on employment discrimination litigation. In addition, he was involved with a number of urban area school district desegregation and educational equity cases. He also litigated sex equity/athletic program cases; physical disability/accessibility cases; age discrimination/pension cases; and private club/access cases.
Hardiman, additionally, has served as the Interim Executive Director of the PHRC on two occasions, first in 2011 and again in 2018.
Hardiman currently serves, in a volunteer capacity, as Of Counsel to the Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE). PLSE is a nonprofit corporation that works in the community to reduce negative collateral consequences for those who have interacted with the Pennsylvania Criminal Justice System. PLSE focuses on providing services to low-income individuals with criminal records, primarily through its Criminal Records Expungement Project and its Fair Employment Opportunities Project, to create a more equitable environment related to employment, housing, education, and various social services through strategic litigation, community education, and legislative advocacy.
Hardiman received his undergraduate degree from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., and he graduated cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.
