Boston Bar Association

Reaffirming the Boston Bar Association's (BBA) commitment to developing the leaders of tomorrow, the Boston Bar Association today released the names of 12 lawyers who have been selected for the BBA's 2010-2011 Public Interest Leadership Program. This prestigious leadership development initiative, now in its eighth year, is based on the premise that there is no incompatibility between the leadership role of a lawyer in his or her community and a commitment to an active practice.

Participants of the 12 month program become part of a growing alumni network.  A source of mentoring, support and friendship, the network has more than 75 members and represents 40 firms and organizations.

The 2010-2011 Public Interest Leaders are:

Stacey B. Ardini - Goodwin Procter LLP
Stacey Ardini is an associate in the Litigation Department of Goodwin Procter LLP where she focuses her practice on complex civil litigation concerning federal securities laws and a variety of general commercial matters.  Stacey has represented many clients in pro bono matters and served as a special assistant district attorney with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.  Before law school, she worked as a legislative aide at the Massachusetts State House.  Stacey is a graduate of Boston College Law School.

Thomas R. Ayres - Foley Hoag, LLP
Thomas Ayres is an associate with Foley Hoag, LLP.  Thomas is a litigator with a focus on white-collar and general corporate disputes, including civil litigation and government investigations.  He has been a member of Foley Hoag’s Domestic Violence Prevention Project and has represented victims in over 20 different domestic violence and immigration matters.  Following law school, Thomas completed a clerkship for Justice Scott L. Kafker of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.  He is a graduate of Boston College Law School.

Darren L. Braham - Ropes & Gray LLP
Darren Braham is an associate with Ropes & Gray LLP in the Corporate Department.  His practice focuses on transactional work, bank loan trading, international securities work, and other general corporate matters.  He is involved in several pro bono and public service projects throughout the greater Boston area including heading the Ropes & Gray housing team for Dorchester House.  Darren has also developed the curriculum and taught workshops for the Economic Justice Project for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights which presents legal workshops and clinics for entrepreneurs in Brockton.  He is currently Co-Chair of the BBA's International Law Section.  Darren is a graduate of the College of Law in London, England and earned his Masters of Law from Suffolk University Law School. 

Jeffrey M. Burns - Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Jeffrey Burns is an associate in Greenberg Traurig’s Labor and Employment Practice Group.  He concentrates his practice on the representation of management clients in all areas of labor and employment law.  Jeffrey has served as a team leader for Citizen Schools where he developed hypothetical fact patterns and cases to be tried at court.  During law school, he was a student attorney with the Boston College Law School Legal Assistance Bureau and an intern in the Gang Unit of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.  Jeffrey is a graduate of Boston College Law School.

Brian P. Dunphy - Mintz, Levin Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, P.C.
Brian Dunphy is an associate at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, P.C where he focuses his practice on litigation and health care matters.  Brian also has extensive pro bono experience including representing clients seeking asylum before the Immigration Court and providing counsel to the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to the study, treatment and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups.  Prior to attending law school, he worked in financial services for Accenture.  Brian is a graduate of Boston College Law School.

Scott P. Fink - Fink Law LLC
Scott Fink is a solo practitioner who concentrates his practice on litigation and employment law.  Scott worked a major pro bono case to locate and gain custody of a child abducted to Lebanon. He has also represented clients pro bono on cases of domestic violence. During law school, Scott served as a student prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Following law school he clerked for Judge A. Richard Caputo in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  Scott is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

Jane C. Harper - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Jane Harper is an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom where she works on mergers and acquisitions in the Corporate Department.  Jane has extensive public service experience.  She spent a year teaching at a village school in Kenya and has served on the board for the League of Women Voters of Hamilton and Wenham.  She began her professional career working and volunteering for several nonprofit organizations.  Jane is a graduate of Boston College Law School.

Lauren C. Lamontagne - Committee for Public Counsel Services
Lauren Lamontagne is a staff attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in the Brockton Superior Court Office where she represents indigent clients in criminal proceedings.  In 2008, Lauren was chosen to represent CPCS at a two-day national training conference convened by the America Council of Chief Defenders and New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice entitled, Public Defense: Leading the Way to Racial Justice.  While in law school, she began working for CPCS’s Roxbury Defenders Unit.  Lauren is a graduate of the Northeastern University School of Law. 

Michael P. Maloney
Michael Maloney is a solo practitioner who is a member of the Bristol County Bar Advocate program.  Through this program, Michael represents indigent defendants throughout the Commonwealth on a wide range of legal matters.  Following law school, Michael served as an international law/arbitration visiting fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law in Cambridge, England.  He has participated extensively in several international law conferences in New York City and London, England.  Michael is a graduate of New England LawBoston.

David D. McGowan - Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office
David McGowan is an assistant district attorney in the Appellate Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.  He was also selected to be a part of the Homicide Response Team in the Suffolk County DA’s Office in which he serves as a first responder on scene to death investigations.  Prior to attending law school, David served as a community organizer for the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice in San Diego, California and was a staff member of Project Bread on the Walk for Hunger in Massachusetts.  David is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School.

Shagha Tousi - Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP
Shagha Tousi is an associate at Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP in the Litigation Department and is a member of the Product Liability Litigation and Government Investigations & White Collar Defense practice groups.  She has represented pro bono clients in the areas of immigration and civil rights.  While in law school, Shagha served as a summer clerk for the Honorable Henry J. Boroff of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts.  Shagha graduated from both Boston College Law School and the Boston College Carroll Graduate School of Management in 2006.

Astrid E.P. Tsang - Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Astrid Tsang is an associate at WilmerHale in the Corporate Department.  Astrid has represented clients pro bono through the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project and the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.  Astrid is also actively engaged with the Committee on Transgender Inclusion of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association.  She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law.  During law school, she completed internships for the Honorable Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and with the Belin Economic Justice Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the Boston Bar Association.  Astrid is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law.