Nick Anastasopoulos receives Volunteer of Year Award
Mirick O’Connell attorney Nicholas Anastasopoulos was chosen by Boston’s Main Streets program to receive this year’s Boston Main Streets Volunteer of the Year Award for his contributions to his neighboring districts.
An attorney in Mirick O’Connell’s Labor and Employment Law Group, Anastasopoulos has appeared before numerous state and federal agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He has represented various local and national employers and regularly advises employers on labor and employment law issues.
Anastasopoulos serves on the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Council. He is also a member of the Boston Bar Association and serves as chair of the Worcester Bar Association’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Section. Anastasopoulos is a member of the West Roxbury Main Street Executive Board and chair of the Economic Redevelopment Committee. He is also a board member of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston Council.
William J. Hunt volunteered in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Attorney William J. Hunt, a founder and head of the litigation department at Clark, Hunt & Embry in Cambridge, recently donated his time to the Rule of Law Initiative and Judicial Prosecutorial Training Centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there, Hunt assumed the role of an advocacy skill trainer and taught Bosnian prosecutors a wide range of advocacy skills, some of which include presenting opening and closing arguments and direct and cross examination.
He has taught trial advocacy for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy throughout the world and is program director for the Taking and Defending Depositions Program, which is held in Boston each year.
"It was an incredible experience to get to know so many lawyers practicing in this region of the world," said Hunt. "It was an honor to be able to pass along skills to this group of attorneys and to learn more about their way of practicing law."
He concentrates his practice in business litigation, high value tort cases, employment law and cases involving the Americans with Disabilities Act and related state and federal statutes and regulations. Admitted to practice in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Hunt has tried cases throughout both states and has also tried and arbitrated cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New Hampshire.
Massachusetts judges awarded Kevin Duggan Community Service Award
Two judges were presented with the first Kevin Duggan Community Service Award during a Statehouse ceremony recently. The Duggan Award was named in honor of Kevin Duggan, former statewide supervisor of the Massachusetts Trial Court Community Service Program, who passed away in June 2006 at age 56.
The honorees were Attleboro District Court Presiding Justice Gregory L. Phillips and Boston Municipal Court – Dorchester Division Presiding Justice Sydney Hanlon. The inaugural award was presented during the Fifth Annual Probation Employee Recognition Awards Ceremony, where 21 employees of the Massachusetts Probation Service were also recognized for their hard work and dedication to the agency.
"Both Judge Hanlon and Judge Phillips have a long history of support for the concept of community service and a deep appreciation of the real value that the program provides to the court and to the public," said Probation Commissioner John J. O’Brien.
"I am touched and honored to share the first Kevin Duggan Community Service Award," Hanlon said. "Having a community service opportunity for people on probation who are unable to pay fines and fees is extraordinarily important. It enables the court to hold people accountable in an appropriate way without imposing an unfair burden on poor people and their families. I am grateful to Probation for providing us with this opportunity and for their kindness to me."
Phillips said, "To receive an award for contributing to the community is a great honor. I was raised with the concept of giving back. I have benefited so much from others who have given to me. I have such a great appreciation and admiration for Kevin Duggan. I worked very closely with him. Kevin Duggan gave so much of his life to others and contributed greatly to the community. It is the greatest award I could receive."
Duggan has been credited with building the program into one that has had a positive impact on communities throughout the commonwealth. In the past year, offenders in the program logged in 371,192 hours of community service. Projects have ranged from roadside cleanup to assembling playgrounds to loading and stocking food at food pantries.