People in the Law

Published: 1:00 am Mon, December 17, 2007

By admin Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

New associations

Elise S. Wald and Julie Ann Duschka have joined Posternak, Blankstein & Lund in Boston as associates.Kristin D. Casavant has joined Hanify & King in Boston as an associate.Waltham-based Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton has formed a patent practice.Lauren R. Holland has joined Murtha Cullina in Boston as an associate.Emily Andrus has joined Worcester-based Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple as an associate.

Promotions

The following have been named partners at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston: Richard C. Abat, Christian A. Atwood,C. Hunter Baker, Jennifer R. Cooney, Kathy Cloherty Henry, Kelly Sam Huffman, William S. McMahon, Andrea L.C. Robidoux and Jolie M. Siegel.

Honors

Samuel C. Sichko , a partner in the Boston office of Bowditch & Dewey, and Michael L. Fay, a partner at WilmerHale in Boston, have been selected among Worth Magazine’s “Top 100 Attorneys” for 2007.Donald R. Pinto Jr. , a director at Rackemann, Sawyer and Brewster in Boston, has been honored by HAP, Inc., a non-profit developer of affordable housing in western Massachusetts. Pinto represented the company in litigation over its proposed development of 26 units of affordable housing in Amherst.

Professional groups

JThe Worcester County Bar Association has named six attorneys from Worcester-based Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple as committee chairpersons.William D. Jalkut has been named chairman of the Fee Arbitration Committee; Robert F. Dore Jr., the Finance Committee;Francis A. Ford, the Legislation Committee; Marisa Armitage Higgins and John W.S. Creedon Jr., the New Membership Committee; and Richard C. Barry Jr., the Tax, Trusts & Estates Section. Brian J. Buckley will continue to serve as editor of the WCBA Newsletter.Andrea C. Kramer , a partner at Sullivan, Weinstein & McQuay in Boston, has been elected a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Obituaries

Francis G. Poitrast , a former Juvenile Court judge, died Nov. 7 of complications from a lung infection at the Eagle Pond Rehabilitation and Living Center in South Dennis. He was 79.Poitrast grew up in Boston’s Back Bay and graduated from Boston English High School, Boston University and Boston University School of Law, according to The Boston Globe.After serving in the Army for two years, Poitrast built his law practice in the Back Bay.In November 1964, Gov. Endicott Peabody appointed him a Juvenile Court judge.Over the next three decades, colleagues told the Globe, Poitrast changed perceptions and the way justice was dispensed for juvenile offenders in Massachusetts, working to engineer a sweeping transformation that established courts and programs across the state that are dedicated to juvenile matters.Colleagues said Poitrast devoted much of his tenure as chief justice of the Juvenile Court Department to ensuring that the Legislature supported such wide-ranging options.Among his innovations was setting up the Court-Appointed Special Advocate program, or CASA, so that volunteers could be trained to be guardians ad litem for abuse and neglect cases. He also created a 24-hour emergency response system so Juvenile Court judges would be available when hospitals or social service agencies needed intervention during hours court was not in session, the Globe reported.Irving “Chick” Sheff , an attorney who was active in politics on both the state and national levels, died Dec. 7 at the age of 85.Sheff grew up in Roxbury, where he was a member of the Lincoln Club. He attended Roxbury Memorial High School, Huntington Prep and Ohio State University before serving during World War II in the Philippine Theatre.Upon his return, he attended George Washington University Law School and established Sheff Law in Boston.Sheff was a leader in the American Association of Justice, Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys and the Massachusetts Bar Association.Longtime Malden District Court Clerk-Magistrate Joseph E. Croken died suddenly on Dec. 4. He was 83.Born in South Boston, Croken was a World War II Marine Corps veteran who fought in the South Pacific. He graduated with honors from Boston University in 1950 with a degree in communications.In 1979, Croken was appointed clerk-magistrate of the Malden District Court by Gov. Edward J. King and served in that position for 28 years until his death. Prior to his appointment, Croken served as Malden city clerk for three years and as chief aide to U.S. Rep. Torbert MacDonald for 21 years.