UPDATES ON ERICA BRODY ’11
With a formidable history of successfully holding institutions accountable for abuse, neglect, and discrimination [“Then Came the Reckoning,” Winter 2025], Erica Brody is at it again. She has filed suit on behalf of a 14-year-old foster-care child with disabilities who was repeatedly raped in a state-licensed group home by a staff member with a criminal history. “Group homes are in a state of crisis,” Brody says, “and this case shines a bright light on how awful conditions can be.” Her complaint alleges multiple failures to investigate reports of child abuse, workers showing up drunk and supplying narcotics to children, and nutritional deprivation—such as frequently feeding the children still-frozen beef patties.
Separately, Brody recently won an $11 million jury verdict for Major Kathryn Downey in a gender discrimination lawsuit against Massachusetts State Police. “I love the type of work that I do,” Brody says. Her client, she says, “was committed to justice and to making sure that the state police was held to the standard that it should be held to, which is to make sure that you treat everybody equally, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what their gender is.”
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A GOOD PLACE
Assistant Professor Andrea Olson may be a teacher and scholar at BC Law, but she’s offering more than lessons and grades to her students; she’s giving all 110 of them (yes, you read that right) a personal handwritten note and a small polished comfort stone to ease the stress of exams. “At the end of the semester, I write a note to each student so they know I’ve been thinking about them as a whole person,” she says. The rocks, acquired from her hobbyist father, who collects and polishes them, accompany her thoughtful messages. “I’ve been really blessed with an amazing group of students. They are phenomenal people—brilliant, thoughtful, and fun,” she explains. The gifts are a token of her respect for their distinctive dedication to learning.
A FAREWELL
Theresa Kachmar, assistant director of student and academic services whose levity and institutional knowledge made their mark during her 27 years at BC Law, passed away last October. She came to the Law School as a faculty support assistant and later took on roles as student records keeper, course administrator, exam planner—you name it, Theresa did it at some point in her long career. Professor Alan Minuskin captured the sentiments of many in his response to her passing in a community email: “With humor, kindness, wisdom, and the brief giggle some of you have mentioned, she always found a way to make things work. She was a creative, generous, and clever solver of problems, and an absolute joy to know.”
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