The Massachusetts Bar Association is pleased to announce that
Gov. Deval L. Patrick will deliver the keynote address at its
Annual Dinner set for Thursday, May 9 at the Westin Boston
Waterfront.
"We are honored to have Gov. Patrick address the Massachusetts
legal community at our hallmark event of the association year," MBA
Chief Legal Counsel and Chief Operating Officer Martin W. Healy
said. "His perspective and accomplishments gained through his years
as corporate counsel and leadership positions in both state and
federal government are admirable and will make for a highly
relevant keynote address."
In addition to the keynote address, the event will also feature
the presentation of the Annual Access to Justice Awards.
Patrick was first elected as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts'
governor in 2006 and was re-elected to a second term in November
2010. Committed to expanding opportunity and prosperity in
Massachusetts, the Patrick administration has maintained or
expanded the state's investment in critical growth sectors, despite
challenging economic times. Under Patrick's leadership, the
commonwealth has become as a global leader in biotech, bio
pharmaceuticals and IT and a national leader in clean energy -- the
home to the country's first offshore wind farm.
As governor, Patrick committed the commonwealth to renewing its
aging and neglected infrastructure and oversaw the expansion of
affordable health care insurance to over 98 percent of
Massachusetts residents. The Patrick administration also
accomplished major reforms that had eluded decades of other elected
leadership, reforming the state's pension systems, ethics laws and
transportation bureaucracy.
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Patrick
began his legal career clerking for a federal judge and went on to
become an attorney and business executive, rising to senior
executive positions at Texaco and Coca-Cola. In 1994, President
William Jefferson Clinton appointed Patrick as assistant attorney
general for civil rights, the nation's top civil rights post.