Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and the Massachusetts Bar
Association will honor a distinguished roster of professionals at
the annual Excellence in the Law celebration at the Hynes
Convention Center in Boston on June 2 beginning at 5:30 p.m. A
cocktail reception will precede the awards ceremony.
In addition to the Diversity Heroes and Up & Coming Lawyers
selected by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly to be honored at
the event, the Daniel F. Toomey Judicial Excellence Award will be
presented to retired Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice
Judith A. Cowin, and the Excellence in Legal Journalism Award will
be presented to the editorial team of State House News
Service.
Cowin retired from the Supreme Judicial Court in April following
nearly 12 years of service to the state's highest court. In 1991,
Cowin was appointed as an associate justice of the Massachusetts
Superior Court, where she served for eight years before her 1999
appointment to the SJC by Gov. A. Paul Cellucci.
Prior to her service on the bench, Cowin served as an assistant
district attorney in Norfolk County from 1979 to 1991. She also
served as legal counsel for the Office of the Chief Justice of the
District Court Department from 1972 to 1979, following two years of
service as an assistant legal counsel to the Massachusetts
Department of Mental Health.
State House News Service is an independent, privately
owned wire service that provides in-depth coverage of the
Massachusetts government. SHNS is trusted by its subscribers as the
primary source of information on legislation, issues and
background.
The news service began shortly after the turn of the
20th century as a lone scribe who documented House and
Senate sessions and then sold copies to other reporters. Since
then, the service has grown into a highly reputable, full
wire-service organization. The editorial team works out of offices
within the Statehouse.