About Ms. Jan Matthew
Ms. Jan Matthew Tamanini has spent more than four decades working at the intersection of law and government in Pennsylvania. She built a career inside state agencies before forming a private practice. Colleagues describe a lawyer who knows the procedural and practical contours of public contracting and transportation law.
Tamanini completed her legal studies at Dickinson School of Law, receiving her J.D. in 1981. She earlier earned a B.A. in Journalism and Theatre Arts from Pennsylvania State University in 1973. Those two degrees -- one in reporting and one in law -- shaped a direct writing style and an eye for the details that matter in regulatory work.
Her public-sector career began in the mid-1980s. In 1984 she served as an assistant counsel at the Pennsylvania Securities Commission. A few years later she joined the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, working in the Contract, Aviation, and Mass Transit Section beginning in 1987. That role exposed her to procurement issues, contract drafting and the complexities of public transportation projects.
In 1990 she moved to the Governor’s Office of the Budget as an assistant counsel, and then returned to the Department of Transportation in 1991 as assistant counsel for Contracts and Legal Services. Her responsibilities increasingly touched on large-scale projects and the contractual frameworks that govern them. In the early 2000s she took on management-level counsel roles at the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, serving as Assistant Chief Counsel for Public Works in 2001 and as Senior Counsel for Procurement and Governmental Operations in 2003.
In 2007 she joined JMT Law, LLC as a member. In that setting she translated years of government-side experience into client advice, handling matters that often involved procurement disputes, contract interpretation, and public works concerns. Her background gives her practical insight into how state procurement offices evaluate bids and manage contractual performance.
Tamanini maintains memberships in the Pennsylvania State Bar, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Dauphin County Bar Association. She has presented on public contracting topics for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and has served as chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Plain English Committee since 2010, a role that aligns with her interest in clear drafting and accessible legal writing.
She is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and continues to handle matters for both public entities and private parties. Her current practice concentrates on procurement, contracts, public works, transportation law and governmental operations.
