Of Kennedys, Kings and Clowns

Published: 1:00 am Mon, April 2, 2001

By admin Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

The Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys’ annual convention was held recently at the Omni Parker House in downtown Boston, reportedly a vast improvement over MATA’s meeting venue in years past: Cape Cod during the spring mud season. The 1st Annual MATA Consumer Advocate Award was presented to Joseph P. Kennedy II, who accepted the award with what sounded suspiciously like material once meant for a campaign trail.

Kennedy’s speech was an ode to the trial lawyer, a pep rally for those representing the “Davids” in their never-ending fight against the “Goliaths.” Kennedy picked on big-business such as pharmaceutical and medical device companies, manufacturing interests and other large employers, repeating that “we need lawyers to stop them from crossing the line.”

Noting the Bush administration’s recent rollbacks of environmental initiatives to protect drinking water, open space and national forest lands, Kennedy referenced Boston’s Leo V. Boyle, president-elect of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, saying that “from what we’ve seen the past few days, we’ll definitely need Leo Boyle in Washington.”

Current MATA President Douglas K. Sheff presided over the dinner, at one point recognizing his father, Irving “Chick” Sheff, a one-time friend of Joe Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy. The old-guard Democratic lawyer karma was in full flow as Sheff waxed poetic about his dad and other legends like Boyle and Camille F. Sarrouf.

The gregarious Sheff also joked about his own role in keeping Kennedy from crossing the line in the Massachusetts governor’s race. Sheff quipped that he was Kennedy’s biggest supporter, and had called his company Citizen’s Energy daily, offering to volunteer for the Kennedy campaign. “‘If you run, I’ll be in your office every day. If you run, I’ll be there for you 24-7. If you run, I’ll be your right-hand man,’” Sheff says he vowed.

After making these promises for a week, Sheff said he opened The Boston Globe. “The headline said, ‘Kennedy Will Not Run,’” Sheff reported, eliciting hearty laughter from the MATA diners.

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Slackers, underlings and party-goers of all ilks and ages, take heart, you too can become a highly respected, powerful player in today’s legal world, according to Michael E. Mone, former MATA president and Boston attorney.

While introducing U.S. Rep. William D. Delahunt at the academy’s annual awards luncheon, Mone — an old friend of the congressman’s — suggested that the honorable legislator could party with the best of them back in his college days.

After asking the audience whether they’d seen the movie “Animal House,” Mone good-naturedly noted that while some might think the movie a “pleasant comedy,” Delahunt “believes it was a documentary.”

Referring to the character in the film played by John Belushi who went on to become a politician, Mone continued: “Bluto went on to become Senator Blutarsky. Well, he’s now Congressman Delahunt.”

When the congressman stood up to accept the MATA Outstanding Legislator of the Year Award, he noted that his original plan had been to simply say, “thank you,” but that in light of Mone’s remarks, he would have to respond at some length.

Indeed, Mone spared neither himself nor honoree Superior Court Chief Justice Suzanne V. DelVecchio from a friendly roasting.

DelVecchio, Delahunt and Mone all attended Boston College Law School together in the late 1960s, and Mone noted that if their classmates had been asked if there would be a U.S. congressman, a Superior Court chief justice and a president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in their midst, they would have answered with an unfailing “Yes.”

“They just never would have said it would be the three of us,” Mone concluded.

DelVecchio began her remarks by recalling the ripple of amazement that ran through the trial bar when she was elected as MATA’s first female secretary.

But the chief justice’s remarks grew serious when she noted that the members of MATA were “trial lawyers” and not “litigators.”

As trial lawyers, DelVecchio remarked, the lawyers are in court everyday and are essential to the system.

“If it weren’t for trial lawyers, we’d still have cars that blow up when rear-ended,” she suggested.

The chief justice underscored the importance of trial lawyers to the Superior Court, and the importance of trying cases to a jury.

She noted that lawyers fear “the uncertainty of juries today,” and to that end the court would investigate ways to alleviate lawyers’ fear of jury trials.

She added that the Superior Court would hold a bench/bar conference in June and that “we are going to discuss voir dire.”