Learning from the masters: co-op students (standing, from left) Gregg Leppo ’06, Jeffrey Morgan ’07 and Jesse Baer-Kahn ’06 with (seated, from left) associate Ken Resnik ’97 and partners Jonathan Shapiro and Patty Garin ’84.

PHOTO: MICHAEL MANNING

Winter 2006 | Newsbriefs: Co-op Coup

Small Firm Provides Big Experience

Small in size but mighty in reputation: that’s Stern, Shapiro, Weissberg & Garin. The busy Boston-based, eight-attorney firm is currently representing Branden Morris and Darryl Green, the first African-American defendants to face a federal capital trial in Massachusetts in three decades. They’ve also filed a class-action suit on behalf of all Buzzards Bay residential property owners, seeking damages for pollution of their property from a 2003 oil spill. These are in addition to the regular complement of high-profile murder, employment and civil cases that require top-notch legal defense. So, it’s not hard to understand why more than 200 Northeastern law students have opted for co-ops with the firm over the past 20 years — students love the work and Stern, Shapiro loves the students.

“We depend heavily on our students to help us with complex questions of law — often issues of first impression,” said partner Patty Garin ’84. “Since we have had Northeastern law students here for so many years, we all know how to supervise, give feedback and appreciate the students who are doing very hard work.”

Ties between the firm and the School of Law run deep. Garin has served as the part-time codirector of the law school’s Prisoners’ Rights Clinic since 1994; the clinic itself was cofounded by her partner, Jonathan Shapiro, in 1980. Associates Ken Resnik ’97 and Lillian Hirales ’01 also hail from Northeastern. Jesse Baer-Kahn ’06, Gregg Leppo ’06 and Jeffrey Morgan ’07 are now on co-op at the firm, putting in long hours on the death penalty trial scheduled for June, a variety of employment discrimination suits, the Buzzards Bay class action and other environmental and criminal cases pending in the state and federal courts.

“Stern, Shapiro is one of our most faithful and consistent co-op employers. The attorneys there have also served as invaluable mentors throughout the years, and we are so fortunate to have a firm of this caliber in our program,” said Jeff Smith ’77, a director in the Office of Cooperative Legal Education.

Burgess on Way to Federal Bench

President George W. Bush has nominated US Attorney Timothy Burgess ’87 to serve as a judge on the US District Court for the District of Alaska. The nomination was announced in August; Senate confirmation is pending. Burgess was appointed US attorney for the District of Alaska in 2001, and before that was an assistant US attorney for 12 years. Prior to his appointment, he was in private law practice as an associate with the law firm of Gilmore and Franklin in Anchorage from 1987 to 1989. The court is based in Anchorage and also hears cases in Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak and Nome.

PHOTO: JIM LAVRAKAS