People in the Law – May 17, 2010
New associations
Alan Kerzin has joined the Disability Law Center as executive director.Pepe & Hazard, a Hartford, Conn.-based firm with an office in Boston, has merged with McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter of Morristown, N.J. The new firm will be known as McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter.
Honors
Attorney General Martha Coakley received the Presidential Award from the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown.Russell S. Channen of Haverhill and S. Peter Ziomek of Amherst will be presented with the William J. LeDoux Award by the Clients’ Security Board of the Supreme Judicial Court on May 20.Douglas K. Sheff of Sheff Law in Boston will be honored by the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys with its President’s Award for Excellence in Advocacy on May 19.
Professional groups
John M. Cornish, co-chair of the wealth management group at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Obituaries
Leonard A. Berkal, a Salem attorney who practiced at his family firm for more than a half-century, died Feb. 13. He was 80.Berkal graduated from Tufts College in 1951 and from Boston University School of Law in 1953. He served two years in the U.S. Army in Germany before joining his father, Martin, and his brother, Barry, at Berkal & Berkal in Salem in 1955.Berkal was president of the Salem Chamber of Commerce from 1969 to 1971 and president of North Shore Children’s Hospital from 1975 to 1978. He also served as chairman of the United Fund Salem and the Salem Tourist Commission.Berkal continued to practice at his Salem firm, now known as Berkal, Stelman & Davern, until a week before his death.Janet E. Kaufman, a Worcester attorney who practiced in the city for nearly 25 years, died May 6. She was 61.Kaufman graduated from Suffolk University Law School in 1986. She worked at the Law Office of Healy & Rocheleau, the Law Office of Stephen J. Gordon & Associates and the Law Office of Barbara Liftman before joining Abigail Williams & Associates in 2008.Her colleagues noted her gift for legal writing, critical thinking and teaching, calling her an “amazing mentor.”
