Chin on Board with Boalt and New Book

Diane Chin ’89 is the new associate director of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall Law School’s Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice. She previously served as the founding director of the Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School. (Susan Feathers ’87 took the helm from Chin; see class notes.) Chin also brought her nearly 20 years’ experience as a public interest practitioner and scholar to the publishing world with a new book, Beyond the Big Firm: Profiles of Lawyers Who Want Something More (Aspen Publishers, 2007). Coauthored with Alan B. Morrison, the book includes profiles of Northeastern law graduates, including Sylvia Struss ’96, Joseph Lichtblau ’89, Emma Leheny ’97, Don Cabell ’91 and Janice Bergmann ’88.

Bixby Elected President of Mass. Family and Probate American Inn of Court

Brian D. Bixby ’77, a partner with the Boston firm Burns & Levinson, has been elected president of the Massachusetts Family and Probate American Inn of Court, a scholarly organization that consists of judges, lawyers, assistant registers and law professors that focuses on legal developments, trends and changes to improve the professional level of members of the bench and bar. Bixby concentrates his private practice on all aspects of estate planning, fiduciary administration, probate court litigation, family law and representation of trustees, executors and beneficiaries. He has been involved with the Inn of Court for many years, previously serving on its board of directors.

Shannon-Dakon Appointed HHS Policy Director

In March, Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby appointed Melissa Shannon-Dakon ’99 as director of policy for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Shannon-Dakon previously served as director of government affairs for the advocacy group Health Care for All, and before that, was associate counsel to the State Senate Ways and Means Committee under Chairman Mark Montigny. She later served as Montigny’s general counsel and legislative director, working on issues related to health care access.

Summer 2007 | Class Notes Profiles

He Lights Up the Room
Doug Horan ’76

Nobody spends his entire career at one company anymore, right? Well, meet Doug Horan ’76, senior vice president and general counsel at NSTAR, who is celebrating 30 years at the public utility giant. Then again, it wasn’t by design. Fresh out of law school, he clerked at the Rhode Island Supreme Court for a year before joining the legal department at Boston Edison, now part of NSTAR. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I didn’t have a firm idea that utility practice was what I wanted to do,” Horan admits, but the dynamic nature of the work kept his professional fire lit. “The industry has changed a lot, competition has changed a lot, and my job has changed a lot,” says Horan, a native of Ohio. “Effectively, it’s been like multiple jobs over the years.”

Through deregulation, mergers and forays into telecommunications, Horan has stayed engaged. In 2005, with Horan as head of legal, strategic planning and unregulated business, NSTAR made $3.2 billion in sales and earned $196 million in profits. Today, NSTAR is the largest Massachusetts-based, investor-owned electric and gas utility. Its greatest challenge: finding ways to support customers’ energy efficiency efforts, according to Horan. “It’s a new role for utilities,” he notes. Does utility practice run in the family? Only time will tell: Horan’s son Nicholas earned his undergrad degree from Northeastern in 2005 and is now a second-year law student. Check back in 2037. —Tracey Palmer

PHOTO: JODI HILTON

New Tricks for Estate Planning
Michael Blacksburg ’01

Next time your dog brings you the newspaper unbidden, beware: Fido could be jockeying for a bigger share of your estate. It’s not as far-fetched as you think. Michael Blacksburg ’01, a solo practitioner in San Francisco, has pioneered what he calls “pet-friendly estate planning” that “provides for your pet in the event of your death or if you become disabled,” he explains.

Blacksburg stumbled onto the area two years ago when a couple, both veterinarians, asked him to draw up an estate plan that included care of their menagerie — assorted fish, lizards, dogs, cats and rabbits. “Information wasn’t easy to find,” he says. “It’s not like there’s a template out there for this.”

In researching, Blacksburg was disturbed to discover that 500,000 pets are euthanized each year when their owners predecease them. “It’s pretty scary. An executor can just drop off a pet at a shelter,” he notes. And depending where the animals land, they’re typically destroyed or become experimentation subjects.

“Once I drew up this pet trust, I found I was extremely knowledgeable in this niche area,” he says. Blacksburg now speaks to animal-rights groups and writes articles for pet-oriented publications to spread the word.

And of course, he still has a thriving general practice, with a staple of tenant cases, small business and general estate planning. In other words, even if pet trusts don’t take off, Blacksburg isn’t begging for business. — Maura King Scully

PHOTO: JASON DOIY