Tom advises nonprofits on governance, finance, and real estate matters and is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New York. He has extensive professional and volunteer experience with nonprofit charitable organizations.
Tom Tupitza is Senior Shareholder Attorney at the Erie-based law firm of Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C., with additional offices in Pittsburgh and Jamestown (NY), and served as President of the firm from 2007 to 2026. He advises nonprofits, private businesses, and public entities on governance, finance, and real estate matters and is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New York. He currently chairs the board of The Erie Community Foundation and serves on the boards of Westminster College (PA), the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations, The Jefferson Educational Society of Erie, and the Warner Theatre Preservation Trust; previously served on the boards of United Way of Erie County, The Nonprofit Partnership, and the Foundation for Erie’s Public Schools; and is a past board chair of Westminster College, UPMC Hamot (a 445-bed regional hospital) and the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership. An elected member of the American Law Institute, he participated in its Members Consultative Group for the Restatement of the Law, Charitable Nonprofit Organizations. A past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Bond Lawyers, he is active as bond counsel in tax-exempt financing transactions. He is currently listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in four disciplines, having three times been named “Lawyer of the Year” in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area for Public Finance Law. He is a graduate of Westminster College (PA) and Harvard Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He has presented frequently on nonprofit governance and compliance for The Nonprofit Partnership and the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations.
