Massachusetts Bar Association President Valerie A. Yarashus has
announced the members of the 2010 MBA Nominating Committee. The
committee is charged with reviewing the nominations submitted for
consideration for MBA officer positions for the 2010-11 association
year to begin Sept. 1, 2010.
Massachusetts Bar Association Immediate Past President and
Nominating Committee Chair Edward W. McIntyre is a
solo practitioner in civil litigation in state and federal court,
concentrating his practice in the areas of spinal cord and brain
injury law. A U.S. Army veteran and longtime MBA volunteer,
McIntyre has been a member of the House of Delegates since 1998,
sat on the MBA President's Task Force on Judicial Evaluations and
the MBA's ABA Nominating Committee. In addition to serving as
president, McIntyre served two terms as MBA vice president and one
as secretary. He also fulfilled one-year appointments as vice-chair
and chair of the Judicial Administration Section Council. Chair of
MBA's Judicial Performance Evaluation Standing Committee since
2004, McIntyre is a former recipient of the MBA's Community Service
Award and is a Massachusetts Bar Foundation fellow and trustee.
Warren Fitzgerald (2005-06 MBA president) is
the founding manager of Fitzgerald Law Firm and Fitzgerald Dispute
Resolution. Fitzgerald has been a member of the MBA's Executive
Management Board, the Budget and Finance Committee and the House of
Delegates for many years and is a former chair of the Court Reform
Task Force and the MBA's Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee
as well as past co-chair of the Presidential Task Force on the
Preservation of Rights, Liberties and Access to Justice. In
addition to his MBA activities, Fitzgerald is a past president of
the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, a member of the
American, Boston, Women's and Essex County bar associations.
Mary Jo Kennedy is a member of Bulkley,
Richardson and Gelinas LLP in Springfield, where she focuses on
employment and medical malpractice law. Kennedy is currently the
Hampden County regional delegate to the MBA's House of Delegates
and is a member of the MBA's Executive Management Board. Kennedy
has also served on the Board of Directors of the Hampden County Bar
Association since 2000 and served as president from 2003 to 2004.
Kennedy has successfully represented employers before the
Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and physicians
before the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. In
addition, Kennedy is the coordinator of the MBA's Employment Law
Practice Group.
Christopher A. Kenney is a founding member and
managing shareholder of Kenney & Sams PC, where he focuses on
trial and appellate advocacy. Kenney is currently a co-chair of the
MBA's Civil Litigation Section Council, has served as a special
assistant attorney general and as an adjunct faculty member at
Boston University School of Law. Kenney was awarded the highest
rating by the Martindale Hubbell National Law Directory,
ranked one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts by Boston
Magazine, named a "Super lawyer" and included in the 2009 and
2010 editions of The Best Lawyers in America. Kenney
attended Boston University School of Law and is president-elect of
the Massachusetts Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and past
president of the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association.
Margaret D. Xifaras is a founding member of
Lang, Xifaras & Bullard, where she focuses on family law.
Xifaras is the former chair of MBA's Family Law Section and a
frequent MBA panelist and presenter on family law and ethics
issues. Additionally, Xifaras is a former Massachusetts Bar
Foundation president and MBF Louis D. Brandeis Life Fellow. In
2009, Xifaras was awarded MBA's President Award which is given for
significant contribution to the work of the MBA. Xifaras is also an
active member in the Bristol County and New Bedford bar
associations.
Gina Y. Walcott is the executive director of
Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers Inc., which is Massachusetts' only
lawyer assistance program. Before working for LCL, Walcott spent
more than eight years as an assistant United States attorney for
the District of Massachusetts and six years as an assistant
attorney general for the commonwealth. Walcott is an active member
in MBA's Lawyers in Transition Committee, co-chairs the Women's Bar
Association's Women of Color Committee and is a past president of
the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association. Walcott has been a
recent recipient of the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
"Women of Justice" award and was named one of the Ten Outstanding
Young Leaders by the Boston Junior Chamber of Commerce. In
addition, Walcott is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation's
Society of Fellows.
David W. White Jr. is a principal of
Breakstone, White & Gluck PC of Boston, where he concentrates
in personal injury, insurance company bad faith, medical practice
and professional liability litigation. Prior to serving as
president for the 2007-08 association year, White chaired the MBA's
Civil Litigation Section Council, the Law Management Section
Council and the MBA Annual Conference in 2005. White also served on
the Joint Bar Committee and the Governance Task Force and
co-chaired the Anniversary Fee Task Force. A recipient of the 2004
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly "Lawyer of the Year" Award,
White was also chosen as a "Super Lawyer" in the field of
plaintiff's personal injury law by Boston Magazine from
2004 through 2009, and was one of Massachusetts' Top 100 Lawyers in
2005 and 2006.