Dashiell appointed Trial Court's director of planning and policy development
Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert A. Mulligan recently announced the appointment of attorney Pamela M. Dashiell of Boston as the director of planning and policy development for the Administrative Office of the Trial Court. Dashiell began her new position on July 10. As director, she is responsible for the development of new plans and initiatives to improve the management and operations of the Trial Court and for gathering and analyzing data to support existing initiatives.
Dashiell has more than 25 years of experience in the practice of law. Since 1999, she has served as general counsel to the Massachusetts attorney general, where she represented and advised the attorney general and his staff on diverse legal and policy issues. She also spent three years as an assistant attorney general in the Public Protection Bureau and as general counsel to the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for three years.
She has extensive experience drafting, reviewing and interpreting state and federal contracts, legislation and regulations and working with public and private sector agencies. Dashiell also has worked in municipal government and has practiced law with a high technology company.
A native of Chicago, Dashiell is a graduate of Simmons College and Northwestern University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and Illinois. In addition to the MBA, she is a member of the American Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association and Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys Association.
Active on various boards and commissions, including the Boston Human Rights Commission, Dashiell she is currently co-chair of the MBA's Task Force on Diversity and is vice president of the Codman Square Health Center in Boston. In 1994, she was a recipient of the Boston YMCA Black Achievers Award. Dashiell and her husband reside in Boston and have two adult children.
WMLS' Andrew J. Steinberg honored at retirement dinner
Andrew J. Steinberg, retiring executive director of Western Mass Legal Services, was honored on June 29. Steinberg, who was executive director for 26 years, was toasted (and roasted) by colleagues, members of the judiciary and staff. Steinberg's dedication to legal services for the poor has been extraordinary, and he will continue to work as a consultant to legal services organizations in the future.
The WMLS' new executive director, Cristina P. Elzeneiny, started on May 1. A graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Washington School of Law, Elzeneiny brings 15 years of experience providing services to disenfranchised populations through her work as an attorney and as a clinical instructor. She has worked as an assistant attorney general for Massachusetts; as a clinical instructor and supervising attorney at Northeastern University School of Law and Harvard University Law School; and most recently as a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Boston.
SJC appoints members to Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Evidence Law
The justices of the Supreme Judicial Court recently announced the appointments of 17 members to the newly established Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Evidence Law. Appeals Court Justice R. Marc Kantrowitz was named as chair.
The Court created the Advisory Committee to prepare a guide to the Massachusetts law of evidence at the request of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. The committee's mandate is to compile existing Massachusetts evidence law into an easy-to-use document, organized similarly to the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Guide to Evidence in Massachusetts is expected to be completed within a year.
Superior Court Judge Peter W. Agnes Jr. and Superior Court Judge David A. Lowy will serve as assistant editors. Other MBA members on the committee include professor Mark Brodin, Boston College Law School; Hon. James W. Coffey, Boston Municipal Court; Hon. Patricia G. Curtin, acting First Justice, Dedham District Court; Hon. Michael F. Edgerton, Essex Juvenile Court; Assistant Attorney General Steven L. Hoffman, Business & Labor Protection Bureau; Elizabeth N. Mulvey, Esq., Crowe & Mulvey LLP; Hon. Geoffrey G. Packard, Malden District Court; Katherine A. Robertson, Esq., Bulkley, Richardson & Gelinas LLP; and Hon. Catherine P. Sabaitis, First Justice, Plymouth Probate and Family Court.
Attorneys McCormack and Reyes re-appointed to LCL Oversight Committee
The justices of the Supreme Judicial Court have re-appointed attorneys William A. McCormack of Weston and Lucy E. Reyes of Milton to the Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers Oversight Committee for four-year terms. The committee, made up of six lawyers appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court, oversees the appropriate use of the fund for the operation of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers Inc.
Of counsel at the Boston law firm of Sally & Fitch LLP, McCormack was previously a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP for more than 35 years. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member of Boston College Law School since 1989, and has been a lecturer for Massachusetts Continuing Education Inc. since 1972. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is a member of the Board of Overseers of Boston College Law School. He is also a member of the Boston Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
Reyes has been a field attorney at the National Labor Relations Board in Boston since 1995. She is a board member of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and a former board member of the Jamaica Plain Community Law Center. She is also a former board member and former president of the Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys, and a member of the American Bar Association and the MBA, where she is a member of the Lawyer Referral Service Committee.
Founded in 1978, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers is an independent, nonprofit Massachusetts corporation. The state's sole lawyer assistance program, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers assists lawyers, judges and law students who are experiencing any level of impairment in their ability to function as a result of addiction, mental health, personal or medical problems.
Barrett receives MATA lifetime achievement award
This past May, Concord attorney Charles W. Barrett Jr. was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. Barrett has been with Esdaile, Barrett & Esdaile since 1959, right out of law school. He has remained at Esdaile, Barrett & Esdaile throughout his legal career.
Barrett graduated from Dartmouth College in 1956 and from Boston University Law School in 1959. He was an instructor in law at Boston University Law School's Voluntary Defender Program from 1960 until 1963. Aside from his membership in the MBA, Barrett has been a member of the Boston Bar Association, Middlesex Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He served as treasurer of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America from 1972 to 1974, and from 1988 to 1990, he served as the president of the MATA. He has been listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" since its inception. Within the firm of Esdaile, Barrett & Esdaile, he has been partners since 1973 with Norman I. Jacobs, whose practice is exclusively in the field of domestic relations. Throughout his career, Barrett has concentrated his work exclusively in the tort field, always representing plaintiffs.
In one of his favorite cases, he represented a man who was depicted in a book on the sinking of the Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor as someone who left his post during the attack, abandoning his shipmates to die before dying himself. That man, now 80 years old, calls Barrett on the anniversary of their first meeting every year to thank him for clearing his name and setting the record straight for his family.
Married for more than 50 years to his wife, Jane, Barrett has four children: Bill, who practices law with him, and three daughters, Betsy, Ann and Jennifer. He also has10 grandchildren.
SJC Chief Justice makes Jury Management Advisory Committee appointments
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall recently appointed Essex County Juvenile Court Judge José Sánchez to the Jury Management Advisory Committee and reappointed Chicopee District Court Judge John M. Payne Jr. to the committee.
Both appointments are for three-year terms, ending on May 1, 2009. Sánchez fills the position formerly held by Suffolk County Juvenile Court First Justice Paul D. Lewis, whose term has expired. The Jury Management Advisory Committee, which consists of six justices, is a standing committee of the Court and is charged with assisting the chief justice in supervising the Office of Jury Commissioner.
Before Sánchez was appointed to the bench in 1995, he was a staff attorney at the Committee for Public Counsel Services for eight years; he was appointed by Chief Justice Liacos to serve on the Committee's Board in 1993. He is a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys and a former member of the Juvenile Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association. He is currently a fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and a member of the Board of Advisors to the Criminal Justice Program at Northern Essex Community College. Sánchez served on the Supreme Judicial Court Committee on Substance Abuse. He received his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and his B.A. from Fordham University.
Before his appointment to the bench in 2001, Payne was an attorney at the Springfield law firm of Keyes & Donnellan PC for nine years. He also worked at the Springfield law firm of Kelly, Pessolano & Withers from 1991 to 1992, and at Egan, Flanagan & Cohen in Springfield from 1984 to 1991. From 1981 to 1984, he served as assistant district attorney in Hampden County. Payne taught as an adjunct professor at American International College for four years and has taught on the adjunct faculty of Western New England College School of Law since 1991. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Hampden County Bar Association. Payne received his J.D. from New England College School of Law and his B.A. from American International College.