This year promises to be another very active year for the Massachusetts Chapter.

  We held our Annual Meeting at the Algonquin Club in Boston on Friday, February 5, 2010.  The event was very well attended.  We were joined by Lt. Governor Tim Murray and National ABOTA President-Elect Harry Widmann, who saw us install our new President, Peter Durney, and the new officers for 2010.  For further information, click here.   To see photographs of the dinner, click here.

    On May 7, Mass ABOTA in conjunction with the ABOTA Foundation hosted its third annual Law Day Reception.   The program was held at the Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse.  The reception was very well attended by judges from both the federal and state bench, ABOTA members, and trial lawyers.    To add the Law Day 2010 to your calendar, click here.  Click here for more on past Law Day programs.

    Last year, U.S. Federal District Court Judge William Young addressed our Law Day m gathering, and laid out some thoughts for strengthening the right to trial by jury, which he sees as under attack from many quarters.  You can find his remarks by clicking here. 

    On September 16, 2010, Mass ABOTA and Mass Continuing Legal Education co-sponsored a major trial advocacy program, Trying Cases to Win: Principles Uniform from Coast to Coast.  Two ABOTA past presidents were on the panel, Tom Girardi and Donna Melby both from California.  In addition, Chief Judge Mark Wolf from the District of Massachusetts and Judge Mark Bennett from the Northern District of Iowa added judicial perspectives.  The program was webcast nation-wide.  Brochure.pdf.

   On September 17, 2010, Mass ABOTA produced it’s third James Otis Lecture.  Our theme this year was “Lincoln  and the Law”.  Once again we attracted a superb faculty to address the high school students chosen by their schools to attend.  Professor Akhil Reed Amar, the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University was joined by author and Lincoln biographer Michael Burlingame, professor emeritus from Connecticut College, to discuss various aspects of Lincoln’s law practice and how Lincoln’s view of law shaped his presidency and impacted the country’s  development to this day. 

     This program has been so successful that two other chapters, South Carolina and Sacramento ran their own programs in 2009, and up to 15 additional chapters are considering producing an Otis Lecture in 2010.  For more on the 2010 Otis Lecture, click here.  The forth annual James otic Lecture will be held on September 15 (as the 17th falls on a Saturday).  The program, John Adams and the Foundation of the American Constitution, will feature Chief Justice Margaret Marshall of the Supreme Judicial Court.  Click here for more details.

     Our second annual James Otis Lecture was viewed by over 350 students from across Massachusetts. The program focused on the life and times of Robert Morris, Sr.,  one of the truly most remarkable and courageous trial lawyers in the Commonwealth’s history.  For more, see the links below.  The students heard from Justice Roderick Ireland, Sr. Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, Julian T. Houston, Justice (Ret.) of the Superior Court, and noted historian and Unitarian Minister Stephen Kendrick, who has written extensively on ante bellum Boston and on the Roberts v. City of Boston case and its aftermath.  For a review of this year’s program, click here.

    We will produce our second Masters-In-Trial on October 22, 2010.  President Pete Durney has assembled a superb faculty for the program.  Our first program in 2008 was very well received and we hope to make this one even better.  This is a unique opportunity for younger lawyers, and even more seasoned trial counsel to learn proven techniques from some of the very best trial attorneys in Massachusetts and across the country.  Please contact Pete if you are interested in participating.  Click Masters in Trial

to add this year’s MIT to your calendar.