Boston Lawyer Blog

11 ZDB Attorneys Selected as Super Lawyers and Rising Stars

Published on: October 13, 2020 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

We are pleased to announce that seven of our attorneys have been selected to the 2020 Massachusetts Super Lawyers list. We would also like to congratulate four of our attorneys for being selected to the 2020 Massachusetts Rising Stars list.

Super Lawyers rates outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. Only up to 5 percent of the lawyers in a state are named to the Super Lawyers list, and no more than 2.5 percent are named to the Rising Stars list.

Please join us in congratulating the following attorneys who have been selected as “Super Lawyers” and “Rising Stars” this year.

Emma Quinn-Judge Wins Dismissal of Firearms Charges

Published on: October 2, 2020 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

The Commonwealth dropped all charges in an 8-count Superior Court firearms case after Emma Quinn-Judge prevailed on a motion to suppress. The court ordered all evidence in the case suppressed because the police unlawfully stopped and searched the motor vehicle in which Emma’s client was traveling.

Eight ZDB Attorneys Named in 2021 Edition of Best Lawyers in America

Published on: August 20, 2020 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP is proud to announce that Attorneys Inga Bernstein, David Duncan, Elizabeth Lunt, Ruth O’Meara-Costello, Emma Quinn-Judge, Monica Shah, Rachel Stroup, and Norman Zalkind are listed in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession and rates attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. Congratulations to all!

Emma Quinn-Judge Secures Release for Client During COVID-19

Published on: May 8, 2020 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Middlesex Superior Court recently granted attorney Emma Quinn-Judge’s motion to release her client in light of the risk posed by COVID-19. Her client, who has underlying respiratory conditions that place him at high risk if he is exposed to COVID-19, was being detained pre-trial due to his alleged “dangerousness” at the Middlesex House of Corrections, where there are numerous confirmed cases of COVID-19. A superior court judge vacated the dangerousness finding and ordered her client released to his home.

Massachusetts Appeals Court Upholds Jury Verdict Finding That City of Boston Discriminated and Retaliated Against a Longtime Black Employee Who Was Called “Uppity” by Former First Assistant Collector-Treasurer

Published on: October 31, 2019 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Today the Massachusetts Appeals Court vindicated Chantal Charles, a black woman and longtime public servant, who had won a nearly $11 million verdict in 2015 in her race discrimination and retaliation case against the City of Boston and the City’s First Assistant Collector-Treasurer Vivian Leo. The Appeals Court issued a unanimous 45-page decision affirming the jury’s verdict that the City and Ms. Leo discriminated and retaliated against Ms. Charles and granted Ms. Charles’ appeal of the trial court’s decision to reduce the punitive damages verdict.

Ms. Charles is an outstanding employee who has worked in the City’s Treasury Department for thirty-three years, managing the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust and other trusts, and has dedicated her career to beautifying and improving the city’s parks and neighborhoods. Despite her excellent performance, Ms. Charles has never been promoted. The Treasury Division generally has failed to promote black employees to higher level management positions and is one of the least racially diverse departments in the City with one of the highest pay gaps between white and non-white employees. Ms. Charles’ longtime supervisor left his position after Ms. Leo called Ms. Charles “aloof, non-deferential, and uppity” and insisted that he give her a poor performance review, which he refused to do because it was unwarranted. Following his departure, Ms. Charles continued to experience discrimination and was passed over for promotion to his position twice.

After hearing the evidence at trial, the jury found that the City and Ms. Leo engaged in a “consistently enforced pattern and practice of discrimination” against black employees. The jury also found that the City and Ms. Leo retaliated against Ms. Charles for filing a charge of discrimination at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Zalkind Law’s Emma Quinn-Judge and David Russcol Prevail in Superior Court Trial of Civil Matter

Published on: February 8, 2019 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorneys Emma Quinn-Judge and David Russcol secured a favorable jury verdict for their client in a complex negligence case.

Zalkind Law Sues Harvard On Behalf of Women’s Organizations

Published on: December 3, 2018 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Today, Emma Quinn-Judge, David Russcol, Ana Munoz, and Harvey Silverglate filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court challenging Harvard’s policy that punishes students who join single-sex organizations. As the complaint in the case notes “As a result of this policy, almost every single-sex organization available to undergraduate women at Harvard closed its doors, or reorganized as a co-ed social organization. Most male single-sex organizations, by contrast, remain open, providing men with relationships, opportunities, and experiences to which Harvard undergraduate women now have limited access.” Harvard’s policy, which bars members of single-sex social organizations from holding leadership positions on campus, varsity team athletic captaincies, and prohibits them from receiving College endorsement for prestigious fellowships, “violates the fundamental rights of Harvard women and men to associate freely with their peers and to live free of sex discrimination, rights guaranteed by articles 1 and 19 of the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution, as amended, as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

Information about the firm’s suit, and a parallel federal lawsuit also filed today, can be found at www.standuptoharvard.org.

Attorneys Quinn-Judge and Shah Win Appeal in Race Discrimination Case Against the City of Boston

Published on: October 25, 2018 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Emma Quinn-Judge and Monica Shah recently won an employment discrimination appeal at the Massachusetts Appeals Court. The Appeals Court agreed with Attorneys Quinn-Judge and Shah that their client’s pay discrimination claim should not have been dismissed by the lower court after the defendant, the City of Boston, moved for summary judgment. Plaintiff presented evidence that the City had refused to provide a promised raise to the plaintiff, an African-American woman and a longtime public servant, after she spent nearly three years in her promoted position with substantially greater responsibilities, while at the same giving raises to another white manager. As a result of this decision, their client will now be able to take her pay discrimination claim to trial.

Read the opinion here: Flint vs. City Of Boston & another

Zalkind Law Attorneys Selected as 2018 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars

Published on: October 18, 2018 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

We are pleased to announce that five of our attorneys have been selected to the 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyers List. We would also like to congratulate six of our attorneys for being selected to the 2018 Massachusetts Rising Stars list.

Super Lawyers rates outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. Only up to 5 percent of the lawyers in a state are named to the Super Lawyers list, and no more than 2.5 percent are named to the Rising Stars list.

Please join us in congratulating the following attorneys who have been selected as “Super Lawyers” and “Rising Stars” this year.

Zalkind Law Attorneys Named in 2019 Best Lawyers in America

Published on: August 15, 2018 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP is proud to announce that firm partners Norman Zalkind, David Duncan, Inga Bernstein, Emma Quinn-Judge, and Monica Shah, and of-counsel attorneys Elizabeth Lunt and Harvey Silverglate are listed in the 2019 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession and rates attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. Congratulations to all!