Lawyers e-Journal
Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011
Top from left to right: Executive Director Elizabeth M. Lynch, Massachusetts Attorney General and 2011 Great Friend of Justice honoree Martha M. Coakley, MBF Past President Laurence M. Johnson, MBF President Joseph P.J. Vrabel, MBF Vice President Jerry Cohen, MBF Treasurer Robert V. Ward Jr. and MBF Secretary Robert J. Ambrogi.
Bottom from left to right: 2011 Grantee Speaker Allan Rodgers, MBF Past President Alice E. Richmond, MBF Past President and President's Circle Platinum Lead Fellow Laurence M. Johnson.
Photos by Jeff Thiebauth.
AG Coakley, honored by MBF, highlights shared goals
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha M. Coakley lauded the
Massachusetts Bar Foundation for the role it plays in helping the
state's most vulnerable. The foundation is the philanthropic
partner of the MBA.
"Certainly, what you do with the money you have, you remind us of
how special it is to be a lawyer," said Coakley, who received the
MBF's 2011 Great Friend of Justice Award at the 2011 Annual
Meeting. The event was held Jan. 25 at the Social Law Library in
Boston's John Adams Courthouse.
Coakley noted how her office and MBF funding help address a
variety of issues, including: housing, health care, education,
children's needs, sexual abuse, predatory lending, civil rights,
hunger and human trafficking. Her office will prosecute cases and
attempt to make systemic changes, she said, and MBF funding is
crucial in starting and sustaining organizations that help people
directly.
The Attorney General's office and the MBF are working toward the
same goal, she said, "to help people who can't speak for themselves
or don't know how to."
After awarding $6.3 million in grants for 2008-09, IOLTA funding
dropped 66 percent, and the MBF had to spend money from its
reserves in order to distribute $5 million in 2009-10 and $4.5
million for 2010-11.