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2024-25 MBA President Victoria M. Santoro

Attorney Victoria M. Santoro has been elected president of the Massachusetts Bar Association for the 2024-25 membership year, which begins on Sept. 1, 2024. During her year leading the statewide bar association, Santoro plans to advance reproductive justice, diversity and inclusion, and mentorship opportunities for members of marginalized communities.

“I firmly believe that our legal community benefits from more involvement, more discussion, more participation and more community,” said Santoro. “When we know one another better, we expand our perspectives, and it makes us better lawyers.”

Santoro co-founded the law firm of Santoro & Gray Law with her longtime trial partner, Jessica Gray, after 14 years in the field of personal injury law. A skilled trial attorney, Santoro handles a variety of cases, including UBER/rideshare collisions, pharmaceutical litigation, wrongful death, product liability and sexual assault. Notable results include a multi-million-dollar verdict against an international hotel chain for the wrongful death drowning of a father of four. Santoro has also had several seven-figure plaintiff's verdicts.

During the height of the COVID crisis, Santoro prevailed in the state’s first entirely remote civil jury trial. In her first year of eligibility, she was voted a Super Lawyers Rising Star and has received this recognition every year since. In 2014, she received an Excellence in the Law “Up & Coming Lawyer” award from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. In 2022, she was announced in Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch in three practice areas: Products Liability, Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice. She was also named to the 2022 Top Women of Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. This year, on Oct. 15, the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts will present Santoro with the WBA’s Emerging Women Leaders in the Law Award.

In addition to serving as president of the MBA, Santoro has been extremely active in the bar association. She formerly served as chair of the Young Lawyers Division, as a member of the MBA’s Civil Litigation Section Council and as a member of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Scholarship Committee. 

Outside of her MBA involvement, Santoro co-chaired the Boston Bar Association’s Recently Elected Partners Forum from 2017-2019. She speaks regularly at national legal conferences and local continuing legal education seminars, and she has been a guest speaker and lecturer in law schools. Santoro has been asked to speak at the swearing in of new Massachusetts lawyers every year since 2015, which she considers an annual highlight.

Santoro is a 2007 graduate of Wesleyan University and attended Boston College Law School. She lives in Concord with her son and rescue dog.

The MBA’s leadership team for the 2024-25 year includes President Victoria M. Santoro, President-elect Michael H. Hayden, Vice President Samuel A. Segal, Treasurer Shayla Mombeleur and Secretary Marc A. Moccia. Martin W. Healy is the MBA’s chief legal counsel and chief operating officer. Full officer bios are available at www.massbar.org/officers.