Suffolk University Digital Collections @ Suffolk Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine Suffolk University Publications Winter 2021 Suffolk University Law School Alumni Magazine, Winter 2021 issue Suffolk University Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.suffolk.edu/slam Recommended Citation Suffolk University Law School, "Suffolk University Law School Alumni Magazine, Winter 2021 issue" (2021). Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine. 30. https://dc.suffolk.edu/slam/30 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Suffolk University Publications at Digital Collections @ Suffolk. It has been accepted for inclusion in Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Suffolk. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SUFFOLK LAW ALUMNI MAGAZINE 02 A MESSAGE FROM DEAN PERLMAN 03 SUFFOLK LAW BY THE NUMBERS 04 NATIONAL HONORS FOR CIVIC-MINDED STUDENT 04 FAIR HOUSING PROGRAM GETS $1M GRANT 04 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS TURNS TO SUFFOLK 05 ALUMNA DESIGNS DIVERSIONARY PROGRAMS APP 05 NEW DEGREE PROGRAM FOR LIFE SCIENCES LAW 05 PROFESSOR EARNS ABA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 06 NEW LAW FACULTY ON ISSUES THAT MATTER 08 LEGAL 500 RECOGNIZES RECENT GRADUATE 08 RECOGNITION FROM THE NATIONAL BLACK PRE-LAW CONFERENCE 08 SUFFOLK LAW HELPS LAUNCH NATIONAL POLICING A SAGE CONSORTIUM 09 MICHAEL J. NICHOLSON: MAYOR FROM BY DAY, LAW STUDENT BY NIGHT 10 DEA SUFFOLK LAW STUDENT WINS PATENT AWARD 11 NEW GROUP ASSISTS FIRST -GEN STUDENTS 12 CLOSING 35 COVID-19 PHD’S JUSTICE GAP ENROLLED AT 12 NY TIMES SUFFOLK L HIGHLIGHTS 13 A QUICK EVICTION RELIEF TURN T O WA R D 13 CLINICS FORGE THE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM AHEAD IN FACE OF PANDEMIC 13 EMERGENCY FUND HELPS STUDENTS IMPACTED BY COVID 14 SERGE GEORGES JR. NOMINATED TO SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT 17 BRETT FREEDMAN ADVISES THE SSCI 18 REGINA HOLLOWAY’S CAREER IN POLICE OVERSIGHT TAKES A NEW TURN 19 THREE ALUMNI MAKE $1M PLEDGES IN SINGLE YEAR 20 ALL RISE: CELEBRATING SUFFOLK LAW’S FEMALE LEADERS 21 ALUMNI CONTRIBUTIONS WITH PERSONAL MEANING 21 ERNST GUERRIER PAYS IT FORWARD 22 DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION AT SUFFOLK LAW 25 TRANSACTIONAL LAW MEETS SOCIAL JUSTICE 26 DEAN PERLMAN HELPS LEAD ACCESS-TO-JUSTICE-EFFORT 27 SUFFOLK LAW LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE HYBRID ONLINE JD PROGRAM 28 EMPATHY AND REHABILITATION, ALUMNI FORGE NEW PATHS FOR THE COURTS 32 SUFFOLK LAW RESPONDS TO THE HOUSING CRISIS 38 WALK IN MY SHOES: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BLACK WOMAN ATTORNEY 41 HONORING THE MEMORY OF A RISING STAR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE 42 DEAN’S CABINET GROWS BY FIVE 44 STUDENT AWARD NAMED FOR FORMER DEAN ROBERT SMITH WINTER 2021 49 REMEMBERING KENNEDY FAMILY ADVISOR GERARD DOHERTY SUFFOLK CONTENTS LAW Dean Andrew Perlman Executive Editor Greg Gatlin Editor-in-Chief Michael Fisch Associate Editor Katy Ibsen Design Jenni Leiste Contributing Writers Kara Baskin Beth Brosnan Alyssa Giacobbe Jon Gorey Mark Potts Contributing Photographers Michael J. Clarke Adam Johnson Copy Editor Janet Parkinson 32 Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine is published once a year by Suffolk University Law School. The magazine is printed by Lane Press in Burlington, SUFFOLK LAW VT. We welcome readers’ comments. RESPONDS TO THE Contact us at 617-573-5751, [email protected], or at Editor, Suffolk HOUSING CRISIS Law Alumni Magazine, 73 Tremont Tackling Discrimination St., Ste. 1308, Boston, MA 02108- and Affordable Housing 4977. c 2021 by Suffolk University. All publication rights reserved. Head On EMPATHY AND REHABILITATION Suffolk Law Community Helps Forge New Paths for the Courts 28 1 Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine | Winter 2021 02 20 Posthumous Honors for A MESSAGE FROM DEAN Professor Victoria Dodd ANDREW PERLMAN 20 CATIC Foundation Supports Accelerator- 04 to-Practice Program LAW BRIEFS 21 Alumni Contributions With Personal Meaning 12 21 Ernst Guerrier Pays It PANDEMIC PIVOT Forward 12 Closing the COVID-19 Justice Gap 22 12 NY Times Highlights LAW COMMUNITY Eviction Relief Tool 22 Diversity, Equity, and 38 13 A Quick Turn Toward Inclusion at Suffolk Law the Virtual Classroom 25 Transactional Law 13 Clinics Forge Ahead in Meets Social Justice WALK IN MY SHOES: Face of Pandemic 26 Dean Perlman Helps A Day in the Life of a Black Woman Attorney 13 Emergency Fund Helps Lead Access-to-Justice Students Impacted by Effort COVID-19 27 Suffolk Law Launches Innovative Hybrid 14 Online JD Program IMPACTFUL ALUMNI 41 Honoring the Memory 14 Serge Georges, Jr. of a Rising Star in Nominated to Supreme Criminal Justice Judicial Court 17 Brett Freedman Advises 42 Senate Intelligence DEAN’S CABINET Committee 18 Regina Holloway’s 44 Career in Police RETIREMENTS Oversight Takes a New Turn 45 CLASS NOTES 19 GIVING BACK 49 19 Three Alumni Make IN MEMORIAM: $1M Pledges in GERARD DOHERTY Single Year 20 All Rise: Celebrating Suffolk Law’s Female Leaders 1 Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine | Winter 2021 MESSAGE A MESSAGE FROM DEAN ANDREW PERLMAN Dear Suffolk Law Alumni: The past year is one we will not soon forget. We have faced a deadly global pandemic, political polarization, a severe economic downturn, and a reckoning on issues of racial and social justice. Suffolk Law alumni are at the forefront of tackling these kinds of challenges, and this issue of the Alumni Magazine covers just some An exceptional group of first-year making strides to ensure that our community of their accomplishments. For example, students. The fall 2020 entering class was is diverse and inclusive. This year, we began our graduates are addressing flaws in the 9% larger than we were expecting, and our taking additional steps in a wide range of criminal justice system; they are working 409 first-year students have median LSAT areas, such as admissions, the curriculum, within the government, at the federal, scores (154) and undergraduate GPAs (3.44) and hiring, to advance that important work. state, and local level, to solve a wide range that were the strongest of any Suffolk Law Transforming legal education. of pressing problems; and they are raising class in the past 10 years. Suffolk Law has launched a pioneering new essential concerns about the obstacles that Increasing bar pass rates. For the Hybrid JD Program (HJD). The program, lawyers of color face in our profession. class of 2020, Suffolk Law’s first-time which had been in the works long before Suffolk Law faculty and students are bar pass rate in Massachusetts increased the pandemic, is the first in the country also playing their part. For instance, just substantially to 80.7%. This is our highest to offer full- and part-time students a this year, they have uncovered pervasive first-time bar pass rate in six years. traditional in-person first-year classroom discrimination in the Boston housing market, Record-setting donations. The experience, followed by the option of taking led an international effort to automate court Law School received three $1 million all remaining classes online. forms for the public while courthouses are commitments in one year. These were the In this issue of the magazine, you will closed, and established a new transactional three largest commitments ever made by find more details about these developments clinic that offers legal assistance to small living Suffolk Law alumni, and two were as well as stories about the many ways businesses during difficult economic times. made after the start of the pandemic. We that all of you—Suffolk Law alumni—are In these and so many other ways, also now have 45 Dean’s Cabinet members, making a difference. the Suffolk Law community is making a each of whom has committed at least Thank you for everything that you do, difference in a changing, challenging world. $50,000 to advance the Law School’s work. both through your professional impact At the same time, we are carrying out our These contributions are enhancing our and your contributions to Suffolk Law. core mission of providing an outstanding programs and ensuring that Suffolk Law Together, we are advancing the Law legal education to talented students who remains affordable to everyone regardless School’s longstanding mission of providing want to achieve professional success. Here of financial circumstances. an exceptional, practice-oriented legal are some recent notable developments: Top rankings in experiential education that enables our graduates to Continuing classes in a pandemic. education. Suffolk Law is the only school make a difference in the world. That mission In March, we temporarily moved our entire in the country that has had four top-25 has never been more important. program online to respond to the public ranked legal skills specialties in U.S. News & health crisis. Our faculty and staff then World Report for five years in a row (2017–21 Warmest regards, worked hard over the summer to prepare editions). for a fall semester that has included a mix Diversity, equity, and inclusion. The of in-person and online classes that are national focus on issues of racial and social interactive, engaging, and delivering on our justice is reflected in our own community. educational promise. For several years, the Law School has been Andrew Perlman 2 3 Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine | Winter 2021 Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine | Winter 2021 SUFFOLK LAW BY THE NUMBERS ONE OF IN 3Governor Baker has nominated7 Suffolk Law alum and adjunct faculty member Judge Serge Georges, Jr. JD’96 to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. If confirmed, Judge Georges would become TEN the third Suffolk Law graduate to join the new $1 million The incoming class has the Commonwealth’s seven-member high 3commitments in best academic credentials court in the last four years, joining Elspeth the last year. of any in the last 10 years. Cypher JD’86 and Frank Gaziano JD’89.