Camaraderie was the word at the 2016 Massachusetts Bar
Association Annual Dinner, held on Thursday, April 28, at the
Westin Hotel in South Boston's Seaport District, when more than
1,000 members of the legal community from across the commonwealth
convened in Boston to celebrate their profession among peers and
friends.
They were joined by famed Bostonian author Dennis Lehane, whose
keynote address took the audience on a humorous trip through a
Boston upbringing, illustrating the capital city's influence on his
development as a storyteller.
MBA President Robert W. Harnais in his opening remarks reminded
his colleagues that their profession, driven by the love of
justice, needs to be protected.
"My first goal this year was to steer our profession back toward
civility and camaraderie. We need to return to a profession rather
than a business," he said. "Now, MBA members are leading by
example. Not only are we making a difference with each other, we're
increasing the respect of our profession. And that's what it
deserves.
"As lawyers we have an incredible power, but a much bigger
responsibility," he added. "Going out and getting your diploma,
passing the bar, making money -- that's what's expected of lawyers.
But going out and making a difference -- that's what's respected of
lawyers."
Night of awards
Harnais eagerly ushered in the event's award ceremony, during
which a litany of MBA members and allies, both established and
up-and-coming, were recognized for their outstanding achievements
throughout the preceding year.
First up were the MBA President's Award winners: Boston
Municipal Court (BMC) Clerk-Magistrate Daniel J. Hogan and attorney
George G. Hardiman. The President's Award honors attorneys for
their significant contribution to the work of the MBA, to the
preservation of MBA values, to the success of MBA initiatives, and
to the promotion of the MBA leadership role within the legal
community of Massachusetts.
Harnais then presented Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg
(D-Amherst) with the Legislator of the Year honors. Harnais called
Rosenberg a public servant with "simply too many accomplishments to
mention," among them a key role in the creation of the bipartisan
Criminal Justice Commission, influential advocacy for
attorney-conducted voir dire in Massachusetts and
spearheading the enlistment of the Council on State Governments'
Justice Center to assess the overall integrity of the Bay State's
criminal justice system.
Rosenberg, in contrast, described himself as "a humble
legislator from Western Massachusetts" with the simple goal of
bringing society's concerns within the doors of the State House to
further the cause of criminal justice reform in tandem with his
colleagues.
"We are going to see a lot of change," Rosenberg said, "in order
to help you and your clients get a better situation and better
opportunity for fair and responsive justice in the commonwealth. …
In accepting this award, I do so with respect and admiration for
the work that you do, on behalf of all of us in the
legislature."
Following Rosenberg's acceptance address, nine additional awards
were distributed, including the Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Scholarship to Boston College Law School student Lauren N. Schaal,
and the Access to Justice Awards. (See related stories, this
issue.)
Captivating storyteller
The night was punctuated by Lehane's address, in which he
extolled the virtues of his city as a cultural haven with "a very
interesting relationship with the truth."
Lehane, the son of Irish immigrants whose primary pastime was
storytelling, described how his family and their friends would
gather on a weekly basis and tell stories of their antics, almost
always set back home on the farms of Ireland. The catch, however,
was that, as the storytellers' cache of anecdotes ran dry, the same
stories would be recirculated, but with ever-evolving plotlines.
Not only this, but bad stories - those that didn't captivate both
the heart and the imagination -- would be shouted down.
"Fiction is the lie that tells the truth," Lehane said of the
realization he came to over the course of his education in the
literary arts, after reflecting for years on the bizarre nature of
his relatives' nebulous yarn-spinning. "What they were doing was
searching out some type of emotional truth. And that emotional
truth is the emotional truth that all immigrants search out."
Nod to civility
Lehane gave his encouragement to those faithfully serving the
profession of law, acting as the guardians of the truth.
"I love what you're doing," he said. "I love the outreach, I
love the civic pride. I love that you care a little bit more about
the bottom line.
"We stand on the rule of law," Lehane said after his address,
noting the importance of law in his own books, such as "Mystic
River" and "Shutter Island." "There's a reason for law, whether you
like it or not. We need the law - it's what makes us
civilized."
"Lawyers are always in adversarial situations," Harnais said,
standing beside Lehane amid the crowd following the ceremony. "We
argue all the time in court. But out of court we shouldn't. …
Tonight we bring lawyers together and we all enjoy each others'
company. We bring the camaraderie back to the profession as it
should be."
Also present following the dinner was MBA Past President Marsha
V. Kazarosian, who said that the main function of the Annual Dinner
is to "bring everyone together.
"It really does," she said. "We work so hard, and this is a fun
night for everybody."
Kazarosian described how the trend of the law profession from a
business back to a profession is "going in the right direction.
"Bob [Harnais] and all the officers worked hard for it, and it's
only going to help everyone going forward," she said.
Of the event, she said, "You keep this in your mind -- it's hard
to be uncivil to someone you've just seen at an event and shared a
story or dinner with. This goes a long way."
Joe Kourieh is an associate editor at The Warren Group,
publisher of Massachusetts Lawyers
Journal.