Long Time Coming

“They always go by the alphabet or by height — either way I’m always last,” joked John F. Zamparelli, accepting an award from the Massachusetts Bar Association for his 50 years of law practice. “They also went by grades — I was still last.”

Zamparelli was one of 15 Massachusetts attorneys cited by the MBA this month for reaching the half-century mark at a reception held at the Le Meridian Hotel in Boston.

Other veterans recognized included retired Probate & Family Court Judge Thaddeus Buczko, before whom MBA President Carol A.G. DiMento argued her first case, and Francis J. DiMento, the MBA president’s cousin.

The other honorees present were: retired Superior Court Judge Herbert Abrams, Joseph J. Balliro Sr., Sumner Darman, Leon M. Fox, Daniel J. Hourihan, Irving H. Sheff, Marnold Tagrin and Annabelle G. Terzian.

Honored but not present at the reception were attorneys John J. Carney, James A. McAvoy Jr., Lawrence F. O’Donnell and Nathan S. Paven.

The event marked the debut for the MBA’s new executive director, Abigail Shaine, a Boston University School of Law graduate who had been working in Washington, D.C., for the Federal Election Commission before deciding to return to New England to head the MBA.

DiMento also used the reception to announce that the MBA would be donating $50,000 to a yet-to-be-selected Massachusetts organization devoted to helping local victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.