The Massachusetts Bar Association will honor the Hon. Nancy
Holtz (ret.) and Boston Globe crime and legal reporter Maria Cramer
at the May 14 Excellence in the Law event, co-presented by
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Holtz has been selected to
receive the Daniel F. Toomey Excellence in the Judiciary Award and
Cramer will be presented with the MBA's Excellence in Legal
Journalism Award.
The annual Excellence in the Law event, which will be held at the
Marriott Long Wharf Hotel, will also feature award presentations in
the following areas: Up & Coming Lawyers, Excellence in Pro
Bono, Paralegal, Marketing and Firm Administration.
Holtz, a former Superior Court judge with more than 30 years of
legal experience, is now a "go-to" mediator and arbitrator for
high-stakes and complex matters for JAMS. Holtz began her career as
a trial attorney, as assistant ?corporation counsel for the city of
Boston's Law Department, and then became partner at Merrick and
Louison, where she tried complex civil and criminal jury trials in
U.S. District Court and Massachusetts Superior Court. Holtz went on
to serve as commissioner of the Alcoholic Beverages Control
Commission, before becoming secretary and general counsel of the
Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, where
she gained broad experience in the banking, insurance and
telecommunications sectors and excelled at fostering communities of
interest between business, regulatory and public stakeholders.
Holtz was appointed to the Superior Court bench in 1996 where, for
15 years, she presided over civil and criminal cases, including
significant multimillion-dollar business litigation, construction
litigation, first degree murder, kidnapping and home
invasion.
Holtz, who is chair of the MBA's Alternative Dispute Resolution
Committee, is also a member of the American Bar Association Forum
on Construction Law, Section on Dispute Resolution Mediation,
Section of Litigation Committee, the Women's Construction Alliance
and the Boston Bar Association's Litigation: Construction
Subcommittee. She has served as a panelist for numerous programs,
including the 2011 MBA Centennial Conference and the 2013 ABA's
section on Dispute Resolution Spring Conference. In 2012, Holtz
served as a Fulbright specialist for the U.S. Department of State
for Ulaan Bator, Mongolia, which she was awarded for development
and creation of a mediation training program for the National
University Law School.
"We are proud to honor Judge Holtz with the Toomey award for
Judicial Excellence," said MBA President Marsha V. Kazarosian.
"From her impressive career on the Superior Court bench to her work
today as a sought-after ADR professional and chair of the MBA's
Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, Judge Holtz has
established an impeccable reputation in the legal community for her
intellect, fairness and ability to handle even the most complex
high-stakes cases."
Cramer, the recipient of the Excellence in Journalism Award, began
her career in New Jersey covering municipal government at the
Trenton Times. In December 2003, she was hired to work for Globe
South, the suburban zones section of the Boston Globe, and was
quickly promoted to metro staff as a general assignment reporter in
2005. Cramer was assigned to cover Boston Police, a beat that
sparked her love for trial coverage and broke news on some of the
biggest stories in the city.
Cramer has led the news pack on cases like Philip Markoff,
otherwise known as the Craigslist Killer, Clark Rockefeller, and
the Woolson Street murders, the killings of three adults and a
two-year-old boy on a Mattapan street. The Globe has sent her to
Guatemala, Costa Rica, London and Germany to follow not only crime
stories but political news. One example is the successful search
for undocumented workers hired by Mitt Romney at the same time he
was condemning illegal immigration during his presidential
run.
In 2013, she was part of the team that won the Pulitzer for
coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings and in 2014, she was
assigned to cover the state's court system full-time and has broken
stories on the Aaron Hernandez case and the Parole Board.
"Maria Cramer is a diligent crime and legal reporter whose
thoughtful, yet unbiased articles continue to speak loudly from the
pages of the Boston Globe, whether she is covering high-profile
trials or uncovering behind-the-scenes developments," said MBA
Chief Legal Counsel and Chief Operating Officer Martin W. Healy.
"Her recent breaking-news story about alleged improper lawyer
searches in state prisons is just one example of how her thorough
reporting has brought much-needed transparency to our criminal
justice system."