Thomas Barnico ’80
An adjunct professor at BC Law who has directed BC Law’s Attorney General Clinical Program since 1989, Thomas Barnico presented a lunchtime seminar at Trinity College Dublin School of Law last May. His talk, “Degrees of Independence of State and Federal Attorneys General in the United States,” was hosted by the Constitutional Governance and Social Change Research Group at Trinity.
Barnico (above left, with Professor Mark Bell of Trinity) was Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1981-2010, and represented the state and its officers in civil cases involving constitutional law, administrative law, and business regulation. He has argued three cases in the United States Supreme Court, eighteen cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and more than seventy cases in the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth. In 2010-2011, 2012-2013, and 2015-2016, he was a visiting professor at the Law School, teaching Federal Courts and Administrative Law in addition to the AG program. He also teaches the Administrative Law Externship Seminar at BC Law and coaches the Law School team in the Braxton Craven Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition at the University of North Carolina Law School.
Public Interest Leaders
Continuing a tradition, three BC Law alumni—left to right, Joseph Lucia ’08, Lavinia Weizel ’13, and Sophia Hall ’12—are among the members of the Boston Bar Association’s 15th Public Interest Leadership Program (PILP) Class. PILP participants connect with prominent community leaders at meetings and events, learn about the challenges confronting local organizations, and take part in efforts to address specific community needs, according to the BBA. After completing the 14-month program, graduates enter a growing network of over 180 program alumni who provide mentoring and support to their successors.
“I am so proud of BC Law’s long tradition of nurturing public interest-minded practitioners,” said Professor Paul Tremblay, co-chair of the BBA’s Ethics Committee and a member of the steering committee of the Section on Delivery of Legal Services. “Like this year, I am delighted every year when I see the BBA list of its Public Interest Leadership Program members, as there is always a strong representation of our alums.”
For more information on Hall, Lucia, and Weizel’s accomplishments, view their bios on the BBA website.
A Farewell
Retired federal bankruptcy judge James F. Queenan ’58, of Worcester, passed away on July 9. He believed that as a bankruptcy judge he worked in two intersecting worlds—the legal one of complex corporate maneuvers and the every-day world of human struggle. He practiced for many years at Bowditch & Dewey and was appointed to the bench in 1986. According to his obituary, he was also a man of letters. He wrote incisive court decisions and many law review articles, co-authored and co-edited a multi-volume treatise on chapter 11 reorganization, and served as an editor of the Massachusetts Law Quarterly. His memoir, Looking Back, told stories of the law and his family. He taught law at Suffolk Law School, Western New England Law School, and The College of the Holy Cross. Read more of his obituary at Legacy.com.