A pair of local media personalities will serve as the celebrity
judges of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Law Day Video Essay
Contest open to Massachusetts high school students. They join MBA
President Valerie A. Yarashus and Norfolk Probate and Family Court
Associate Justice Angela M. Ordoñez.
KISS 108's "Matty in the Morning" personality Billy Costa has
reported on Hollywood news for the show since its inception. He
also hosts the "KISS Top 30 Countdown of Today's Hit Music" on
Saturday mornings and broadcasts live from major events, including
the Oscar and Grammy awards.
In addition to his work at KISS, Costa hosts "TV Diner with
Billy Costa" on New England Cable News.
A native of Cambridge who attended both Merrimack and Emerson
colleges. It was while at Emerson that Costa became a DJ for a live
radio show at a Boston nightclub and joined the college's radio
station as a phantom DJ.
Jared Bowen is an Emmy-winning reporter with WGBH-TV's nightly
news magazine program, "Greater Boston with Emily Rooney." His
coverage takes him from breaking news to politics to arts and
culture. Bowen has produced four news documentaries for "Greater
Boston" and he produced the first three seasons of the station's
"Eye on Education" initiative.
Bowen has won two New England Emmy awards for his arts
reporting. He serves on the Board of Governors for the Boston/New
England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences.
A graduate of Emerson College, where he won several Associated
Press Awards, Bowen is a native of Uxbridge.
Yarashus, a principal at Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow PC
in Boston, will also serve as a judge alongside Ordoñez, co-chair
of the MBA Diversity Task Force, which is providing funding for the
winning scholarships.
Yarashus' signature efforts as an MBA officer include
spearheading the MBA Task Force on Diversity from 2005 to 2007 and
co-founding the association's Leadership Roundtables. She is a
frequent speaker and writer for continuing legal education programs
and co-chairs a bench-bar task force for plain English jury
instructions.
Dedicated to bar involvement, Yarashus is also active in the
Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys and served as its
president in 2002-03.
Ordoñez was appointed associate justice of the Nantucket Probate
and Family Court Department in June of 2000 by Gov. Paul Cellucci.
She served as first justice of the Nantucket probate and Family
Court from 2000 to 2005. On Oct. 3, 2008, she was appointed by Gov.
Deval Patrick as an associate justice of the Norfolk Probate and
Family Court.
Prior to her appointment, Ordoñez was an assistant register of
probate at Suffolk Probate and Family Court and a staff attorney in
the Family Law Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services.
Ordoñez has been co-chair of the board of directors of the
Massachusetts Family and Probate Inn of Courts. She initiated and
assisted in implementing the MBA's Community Tiered Mentoring
Program.
The video essay contest, the first of its kind by the MBA, is
being held in celebration of Law Day this May. Contestants are
competing for scholarships by creating and submitting original
videos - up to three minutes in length - on the subject of
"Diversity in the Law."
The winning entries will be selected based on originality,
creativity, adherence to the theme and overall quality. The
following scholarships will be awarded: $1,000 for first place,
$500 for second place and $250 for honorable mention.
All three winners and their families will be invited to attend a
special ceremony during the MBA's House of Delegates meeting at the
Hilton Hotel in Dedham on May 19. All three videos will be shown at
the event.