Massbar Beat

Part of our 2017 Access to Justice Award Series, this podcast features 2017 Rising Star Award winner Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies of Community Legal Aid in Worcester. She oversees Community Legal Aid’s medical-legal partnership with UMass Memorial Health Care, working with clinical partners and medical providers to help represent low-income clients seeking pro bono assistance with special education needs, disability and public benefits, guardianship, and housing.

Part of our 2017 Access to Justice Award Series, this podcast features 2017 Pro Bono Award for Law Firms winner K&L Gates. Firm partners Andrew Glass and Sean Higgins discuss the firm's work with the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) program, where attorneys represent unaccompanied minors who have fled violent situations in their home countries. They also discuss their firm's work with the International Refugee Assistance Project to provide legal services on behalf of individuals from Iraq and Afghanistan. K&L Gates also partners with Veterans Legal Services to provide pro bono representation to veterans in need within the greater Boston area.

Part of our 2017 Access to Justice Award Series, this podcast features 2017 Legal Services Award honoree Brian Flynn, an attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services who has dedicated his career to advocating for low-income workers with disabilities and recipients of public benefits. Flynn believes it’s important to do "systemic advocacy," because the work he does for one client can potentially affect positive change on dozens more people in the same situation.

Part of our 2017 Access to Justice Award Series, this podcast features 2017 Pro Bono Publico winners Andrew Troop of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and his former colleague Christopher Mirick, who is now at Harvest Power Inc. While colleagues at Pillsbury Winthrop, Troop and Mirick worked together with Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) to achieve successful outcomes in two notable pro bono cases. In one case, the pair helped 15 Chinese immigrant workers recoup earned wages from a Boston daycare facility that tried to discharge its obligations in a failed bankruptcy claim. On a different matter, the lawyers earned a groundbreaking victory in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which paved the way for a Chapter 11 sale of apartment buildings to a nonprofit organization, which will provide affordable housing for the next 50 years.

Part of our 2017 Access to Justice Award Series, this podcast features 2017 Defender Award winner Rebecca Jacobstein, a staff attorney in the Appeals Unit of the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Jacobstein has been relentless in the pursuit of justice for both her clients and thousands of others affected by the Sonja Farak drug lab scandal. While she will be the first to tell you that she’s not alone in this effort, Jacobstein says it’s situations like this that show the importance of having public defenders who act as a check and balance on the state.

Part of our 2017 Access to Justice Award Series, this podcast features 2017 Prosecutor Award Winner Kevin Curtin, a 22-year veteran of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, whose strong moral compass led him to stand up for global issues of justice through his work with the Massachusetts Bar Association and American Bar Association.

Learn about "Defamation," an interactive courtroom drama that encourages its audience to examine stereotypes and perceptions of bias in the play, the legal system and beyond. Hear from Boston-area high school students and lawyers who watched the play last fall during the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association's annual presentation of "Defamation." The Massachusetts Bar Association was a sponsor of the MBLA's program, and more recently has begun presenting a series of CLEs on eliminating bias in the legal system. Learn more about "Defamation" at www.defamationtheplay.com.

Homeless Court is a specialty court in Massachusetts that gives homeless individuals with minor infractions a chance to clear their records and get a new start. Leaders from the Massachusetts Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division had an opportunity to visit this "court of second chances" at the Pine Street Inn shelter in Boston. Listen in as they share observations, interviews and stories of hope from the presiding judge, the Pine Street Inn's Homeless Court coordinator, Homeless Court participants and the president of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

Trial lawyer Richard P. Campbell, one of the co-authors of the Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal's Privilege to Practice ethics column, relates the tale of a once-prominent attorney's fall from grace as a cautionary reminder about lawyers' ethical obligations to their clients AND their law firm colleagues -- and how you do need to sweat the small stuff.

Listen to highlights and excerpts from the 2016 State of the Judiciary Address, hosted by the Massachusetts Bar Association at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston on Oct. 20. This year's installment of this annual event featured remarks from Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants, Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey, Trial Court Administrator Harry Spence and MBA President Jeffrey Catalano. The speakers touched upon recent advances in the judicial branch, improved bench-bar relations and what's next for the courts in Massachusetts. Full remarks from the court speakers are available at http://www.mass.gov/courts/news-pubs/sjc/sjc-chief-justice-gants-delivers-annual-state-of-judiciary-address-2016.html. (Photo by Eric Haynes)

Veteran trial lawyer Christopher Kenney of Kenney & Sams PC in Boston, discusses how your attire, body language, tone of voice and other nonverbal cues can impact a judge or jury at trial. Kenney, who is also MBA Treasurer for 2015-16, shares practical tips from his own experience and from author Sonya Hamlin's book, "Now What Makes Juries Listen."

In this inaugural broadcast of the MassBar Beat, Massachusetts Bar Association President Jeffrey Catalano talks about his time in the theater, and how it has informed his vision of leadership.