Individual Rights & Responsibilities

Section Leadership

Frank A. Smith III

Smith, a Milton resident and principal at Frank A. Smith III & Associates PC in Boston, focuses his practice in the areas of family law, personal injury, business law and civil rights. A frequent lecturer and writer for the Massachusetts' legal community, he served as a 2010 co-chair for a panel discussing legal issues pertaining to the use of Guantanamo Bay and difficulties surrounding detainees at the base. In 2011, he served as moderator for a panel discussion on the anti-bullying statute in Massachusetts. He is a fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation.

Richard W. Cole

A Boston resident, Cole is a nationally known civil rights and Safe Schools consultant who served for 16 years in the Office of Attorney General as an assistant attorney general and Civil Rights Division chief. Cole developed and co-chaired former Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's "Safe Schools Initiative," a statewide collaboration that provides the training and assistance that schools need to make them safe from harassment, hate crimes and bullying. He co-chaired a national initiative that resulted in the 1999 U.S. Department of Education publication, "Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime-A Guide for Schools." As national co-chair of a joint federal-state hate crime training initiative from 1997-99, Cole was a primary author and editor of the U.S. Department of Justice's publication of three hate crime modules currently used to train state and local law enforcement throughout the U.S. on hate crime response, investigation, and enforcement. He also served as the national chair of the Civil Rights Task Force of the National Association of Attorneys General.