Debra Abelowitz joined Special Counsel, the legal solutions unit of MPS Group, Inc., as executive director of the company's Boston office. She will be responsible for developing, maintaining and placing qualified attorneys in direct hire or temporary positions. Abelowitz's prior experience includes working in a general practice firm focusing on real estate and litigation.
Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein received an Award for Leadership from the National Center for State Courts of Williamsburg, Va., for his extraordinary efforts and achievements in helping to ensure access to the courts for non-English speaking litigants.
Borenstein, who was appointed as chair of the Committee on the Administration of Interpreters in 1998 by Chief Justice for Administration and Management Barbara A. Dortch-Okara, coalesced committee members, community groups, bar associations and other groups to address the Trial Court's need for effective court interpreter services.
Under Borenstein's leadership, the committee requested and obtained funding for technical assistance from the National Center for State Courts to aid the committee in identifying issues and recommendations for the professional operation of the Office of Court Interpreter Services (OCIS). Borenstein also successfully sought an additional $700,000 for OCIS from the Legislature for fiscal year 2003, enabling the Trial Court to hire a new manager and training coordinator and seven full-time staff court interpreter employees. In addition, he established a subcommittee on standards and procedures, which conducted public hearings throughout the state to receive input on a draft report. Last April the final draft was approved and new standards and procedures are now being used by the courts.
Several members of the legal community were awarded the Fall River Diocese's St. Thomas More Award for service, including Judge James M. Cronin, Joseph Hasset, Francis M. O'Boy and Judge John A. Markey. The awards were presented during the annual Red Mass on Oct. 26 in St. Mary's Cathedral.
Cronin, first justice of the Bristol Division of the Juvenile Court Department of the Massachusetts Trial Court, was appointed a judge in 1987. He is an active participant in educational programs for judges and lawyers and was an editor of the Juvenile Court Benchbook. He served on the Supreme Judicial Court's Commission on Juvenile Justice and the Court Improvement Steering Committee and was also a member of the Trial Court's Information Technology Advisory Committee.
Hasset, chief probation officer of the Superior Court for Barnstable, Duke's and Nantucket Counties, has been involved with and conducted training for statewide and national organizations during his 31 years of service. In 1995, Hasset helped form the Barnstable County Community Corrections Center, a cooperative collaboration between all courts on Cape Cod and the County Sheriff. The first in the state, it provides special services to offenders.
Markey was elected mayor of New Bedford in 1971 and served an unprecedented six terms until his appointment as a judge in 1982. He was in private practice before being sworn in as justice of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth District Court Department, New Bedford Division, by former Gov. Edward J. King. He was appointed the presiding justice and served until retiring in 1999.
Attorney O'Boy has been trial counsel in significant and high-profile criminal and civil cases for 39 years. A former Bristol County assistant district attorney, O'Boy has served as special counsel to town departments in Taunton, where he also was the city solicitor and has served on many joint committees of the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations. A former Taunton School Committee member, O'Boy was president of the Taunton and Bristol County Bar Associations.
Jonathan M. Moulton and Lawrence A. Gold have joined Piper Rudnick to lead the firm's corporate and securities and emerging companies practice. Prior to joining Piper Rudnick, both Moulton and Gold were partners in the business practice group of the Boston law firm of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault.
Moulton and Gold concentrate their practices in the area of corporate and securities law, with an emphasis on the legal issues, transactions and relationships of greatest interest to technology companies and venture capital firms. They represent operating companies at all stages of development and across a range of industries from software and information technology to biotech.
Moulton and Gold have extensive experience representing both operating companies and investors in private placements of equity and debt securities, as well as representing both issuers and underwriters in public offerings and alternative financing transactions such as Rule 144A and PIPE transactions. As part of their public company representation, each has counseled clients extensively on Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance and compliance related issues. In addition, they have represented foreign companies doing business in the United States and domestic companies in business transactions abroad.
Goulston & Storrs, a Boston law firm, is this year's recipient of the Child Advocacy Award from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The award, which reflects contributions by attorneys on a pro bono basis that have positively impacted the lives of children, was presented at MSPCC's Sept. 25 Board of Directors meeting and accepted on behalf of the firm by Matthew Epstein and Susan Roberts.