Lawyers Journal

Sitting on a desk in Ben T. Clements' new law office, next to a framed drawing from his little girl of the two of them playing hockey, is an inscribed photo from Gov. Deval Patrick. "To my favorite lawyer," is scrawled across the bottom of the photo, which features three smiling attorneys: Clements, Patrick and Michael J. Pineault, who was the governor's deputy chief legal counsel.

The 2009-10 Massachusetts Bar Association House of Delegates met for the second meeting of the association year on Thursday, Nov. 19 at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield. The full agenda indicated a busy start to the association year, as officers and section leadership brought forth a collection of timely and relevant proposals for the House to consider.

The Massachusetts Bar Association has created a task force to put a human face on the impact that drastic budget cuts are having on the courts.

The Crisis in Court Funding Task Force will compile stories of hardship among public users of the court system and will present a report to the House of Delegates meeting in March. If endorsed, the report will support calls for the Legislature to adequately fund the state court system, which was cut from an initial fiscal 2009 budget of $605.1 million to $559 million in fiscal 2010.