MBA honors Hon. Mark Wolf, Globe columnist
Kevin Cullen
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and the Massachusetts Bar
Association honored the best of the legal profession at "Excellence
in the Law" on the evening of May 10 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza
in Boston.
Following welcome remarks and a group champagne toast led by
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Publisher Susan Bocamazo, MBA
President-elect Robert L. Holloway Jr. presented the Daniel F.
Toomey Excellence in the Judiciary Award to the Hon. Mark Wolf,
chief judge of the U.S. District Court; and the Excellence in Legal
Journalism Award to Pulitzer-prize winning Boston Globe
columnist Kevin Cullen.
Wolf was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District
of Massachusetts in 1985 and became its chief judge in 2006. He is
also a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States,
having previously served on its committees on Criminal Law, the
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and Codes of Conduct.
Wolf delivered acceptance remarks that highlighted his great
appreciation of America's judicial system following his speaking
engagements and other interactions with judicial colleagues around
the globe. Wolf -- due to leave for Russia the next day to
conference with judicial colleagues there -- shared that although
he has "had to make some decisions I dreaded making," he was free
and safe to make those as an American judge without the risk of
harmful consequences.
Wolf has been invited to speak on American democracy and human
rights issues in Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary and China. Wolf is a graduate of Yale College and
Harvard Law School.
Cullen has written for The Boston Globe since 1985, and
served as a local, national and foreign correspondent before
becoming a columnist in 2007. His columns highlighting the suicide
of a 15-year-old girl who had been bullied by schoolmates helped
win the top award from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at
Columbia University in 2011.
Cullen has had several stints on the Globe's Spotlight
Team, including the 1988 team that exposed the mobster James
"Whitey" Bulger as an FBI informant and the team that won the
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 for exposing the cover-up
of sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests.
"We in our business can only push and point at the truth, but
what all of you do can change culture," said Cullen after receiving
his honor.
The event also saluted the 2012 Up & Coming Lawyers, as well
as the recipients of this year's other Excellence in the Law awards
for diversity, pro bono, marketing, firm administration and
operations.