The Massachusetts Bar Association has officially set its
leadership slate for the 2013-14 association year. Incoming
President Douglas K. Sheff and his fellow officers will begin their
terms on Sept. 1.
A passionate advocate for using the civil justice system to
effectuate positive change, Sheff will focus his presidency on
three initiatives: the "Working Families Initiative," "Consumer Law
Initiative," and "Justice for all Initiative." Through these
initiatives and other MBA programs, Sheff is committed to
protecting working families and consumers, and promoting the public
image of lawyers as an honorable profession.
Here is the list of the officers and some of their
achievements.
Douglas K. Sheff
President
Sheff is the first attorney in Massachusetts to
serve as president of the MBA and the Massachusetts Academy of
Trial Attorneys (MATA), and as governor of the American Association
of Justice (AAJ) and trustee of the AAJ's National College of
Advocacy. Senior partner at Sheff Law in Boston, Sheff is
nationally renowned in the areas of personal injury, wrongful
death, construction site and brain injury litigation. Chair and
founder of the MBA's Workplace Safety Task Force, Sheff recently
spearheaded the passage of a new Massachusetts worker safety law
mandating proper training, supervision and safety equipment for
temporary workers. An executive committee member of the National
Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, member of Trial Lawyers
for Public Justice and lifetime fellow of the Massachusetts Bar
Foundation (the philanthropic partner of the MBA), Sheff is also a
member of the Academy of Catastrophic Injury Attorneys and a
director of the Belli Society, a group recognized for innovative
trial techniques. Sheff has received numerous honors for his
achievements as a litigator and an advocate. He was honored with
MATA's inaugural Excellence in Advocacy Award for his
representation of children and adults who have suffered traumatic
brain injury and received the ORT Award for integrity in the law.
In addition, Sheff is a recipient of the AAJ's Next Generation
Award and a seven-time recipient of its Wiedeman Wysocki Award.
Sheff has also been recognized by the publication
Lifesavers for preventing injury through aggressive
representation of victims of defective products, and as a
Boston magazine "Super Lawyer."
Marsha V. Kazarosian
President-elect
Kazarosian is managing partner of Kazarosian Law
Offices in Haverhill, where she concentrates in civil rights
litigation, family law and discrimination law. Recently elected as
an MBA delegate to the American Bar Association, Kazarosian has
served on numerous committees and councils, including the Joint Bar
Committee on Judicial Nominations and, most recently, the Supreme
Judicial Court's Access to Justice Commission Committee on the Bar
Examination. In addition, Kazarosian is a life fellow and trustee
of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, the philanthropic partner of
the MBA. A past president of the Essex County Bar Association and
the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, Kazarosian was among
the "Top Women in the Law" celebrated by Massachusetts Lawyers
Weekly in 2011. In 1999, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
named her one of the top 10 lawyers in the commonwealth. Kazarosian
is a Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education trustee and is
admitted in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Kazarosian
teaches continuing legal education for attorneys and is AV rated by
Martindale-Hubbell. A Haverhill resident, Kazarosian is a
corporator of the Pentucket Five Cents Savings Bank and was a
member of the Essex County 150th Anniversary Committee. Kazarosian
has also served as a board member of the Northern Essex Community
College Foundation.
Robert W. Harnais
Treasurer
Harnais is with Harnais Law Office in Quincy, where
his general practice concentrates on criminal law, family law, real
estate, labor and consumer law. A past MBA secretary and vice
president, Harnais has volunteered his service to the association
for many years. The chair of the MBA's Diversity Task Force,
Harnais has sat on the MBA's governing body -- House of Delegates
-- since 2006 and has been a member of the MBA's Executive
Management Board. A past president of both the Massachusetts
Association of Hispanic Attorneys and the National Hispanic Bar
Association, Harnais remains highly involved with both
organizations. As a member of the Norfolk County Bar Association,
he has served on the Race and Ethnic Advisory Board for the
Massachusetts courts since 2007. Harnais received his B.A. from the
University of Massachusetts Boston and graduated from New England
Law | Boston. Harnais lives in Braintree and is chairman of the
Braintree Planning Board. He is a football official and former
coach with Braintree Pop Warner.
Martha Rush O'Mara
Vice President
Rush O'Mara operates the
Law Office of Martha Rush O'Mara, where she has focused her
practice in children's law for more than 20 years. A past co-chair
of the MBA's Juvenile & Child Welfare Law Section, Rush O'Mara
was also an MBA designee on the board of the Massachusetts Legal
Assistance Corporation and sits on the association's Executive
Management Board, Governance Committee and co-chairs the Membership
Committee. A former president of the Massachusetts Association of
Women Lawyers, Rush O'Mara previously served on the Massachusetts
Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account Committee. Rush O'Mara
volunteers in the Massachusetts legal community, conducting pro
bono work and mentoring recent law school graduates. She received
her B.S. from Salem State College and went on to earn her law
degree from New England Law | Boston. Rush O'Mara lives in
Melrose.
Christopher P. Sullivan
Vice President
Sullivan
is a partner at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP in Boston,
where he concentrates on civil jury trials in complex litigation
matters, including financial and securities cases and intellectual
property matters. Sullivan is a co-chair of the MBA's Membership
Committee and has served as an MBA member-at-large of the House of
Delegates and as a member of the MBA's Executive Management Board.
Sullivan also sat on the MBA's Civil Litigation Section Council and
served as tri-chair of the Federal Practices and Procedures
Committee. In addition, Sullivan has served as an instructor at
National Institute of Trial Advocacy programs and as Massachusetts
Chapter president of the Federal Bar Association. As an
accomplished trial lawyer, Sullivan has been named a New England
"Super Lawyer" by Super Lawyers every year since 2004.
Sullivan graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester
and is currently an executive board member of the Holy Cross
Lawyers Association. He went on to receive his J.D. from Fordham
University Law School and is New England Chapter vice president of
the Fordham University Law School Alumni Association. Sullivan is a
Hingham resident.
Christopher A. Kenney
Secretary
Kenney is a founding member and managing
shareholder of Kenney & Sams PC. He has tried cases before
every level of the state and federal trial court system in
Massachusetts and has served as an appellate advocate before the
Massachusetts Appellate Division, Massachusetts Appeals Court,
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the United States Court of
Appeals for the First Circuit. Chair of the MBA's Consumer Advocacy
Committee and a member of the MBA's Executive Management Board,
Membership Committee and House of Delegates, Kenney is also a
former chair of the MBA's Civil Litigation Section. In addition to
his work with the MBA, Kenney is a former president of the
Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association, former co-president of
the Massachusetts Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and former
president of the Boston Inn of Court. The Massachusetts Defense
Lawyers Association named Kenney the 2012 "Massachusetts Defense
Lawyer of the Year." Kenney has served as adjunct faculty at Boston
University School of Law and frequently writes and lectures for
business groups, trade associations and bar associations. Boston
University School of Law honored Kenney in 2012 with the Silver
Shingle Award for outstanding service to the school. Kenney earned
his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross and his law degree from
Boston University School of Law. Kenney lives in Sudbury.