Meg Connolly Announces Retirement
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Meg Connolly has announced her intent to retire in December 2009 as the executive director of the Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) of the Boston Bar Association, a post she has held since 1985. In her 24 years of service, Meg has built a model structure for facilitating private bar participation in civil pro bono work. VLP screens cases for volunteers to take on, and then provides the training and support to ensure good outcomes.
“Meg’s retirement will be a very tangible loss to the legal services community,” said Board Chair Kathleen McGrath. “She skillfully navigated the administrative burdens imposed by federal funding without ever losing sight of the important goal of serving clients who need, but can’t afford, legal help. Her contribution to the delivery of legal services has been significant on the local, state and national level.”
Under her leadership and with the active help of BBA members, the VLP has launched a number of successful efforts to engage private attorneys, including the Lawyer for the Day program at Boston Housing Court and Senior Partners for Justice. Most recently, with a grant from the Pro Bono Institute, VLP has begun a program called Second Acts©, which is designed to assist lawyers who are transitioning from an active private practice to taking on pro bono assignments.
In 1997, VLP became the Legal Services Corporation recipient for Greater
Boston (later expanding to include Metro West). Meg helped engineer a major
reorganization of legal services throughout Massachusetts so that client needs could still be met despite new restrictions on the use of LSC funds. She's had both formal and informal leadership roles among legal services directors and statewide planning groups. Agencies outside the state have called on her to consult on pro bono efforts or management challenges.
Meg’s entire career has been devoted to public service law. Upon graduation from Boston College Law School in 1970, Meg worked as a legal services staff attorney in Brockton, MA with Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and later served as Regional Counsel to the New England Regional Office of the Office of Economic Opportunity/Community Services Administration. For nine years, immediately prior to joining VLP, she was Deputy Regional Director of the New England Office of the Legal Services Corporation.
Meg is a member of the Standing Committee on Pro Bono of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Consultant for the ABA Center for Pro Bono Peer Consultation Project, and a past member of the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. She is a past Co-Chair of the Delivery of Legal Services Section of the Boston Bar Association and its Committee on Public Interest.
She served as President of the Boston College Law School Alumni Association, 2003-4. She is a member of the Board of Overseers of Boston College Law School. She was the 1993 Recipient of The Honorable David S. Nelson Public Interest Law Award of the Boston College Law School Alumni Association; included among 125 Women Who Make a Difference statewide Photo Exhibit by the Boston Women’s Education and Industrial Union, 2002; a 2003 recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award of Marygrove College; a 2005 recipient of the Founders Medal from BC Law School and a member of the inaugural Class of Women of Justice in 2008.
The board of the VLP is working on a transition plan and will be engaging in a formal search to find a new executive director. |
