Boston Lawyer Blog

Attorney Monica Shah Speaks to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly About Use of Wiretap Evidence in the Workplace

Published on: January 27, 2025 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

In response to a Superior Court judge’s recent decision to allow an employer from using an allegedly illegally obtained recording in a civil litigation matter, Zalkind Law partner Monica Shah expressed concerns “about the message that is sent if employers can make use of unauthorized recordings in the workplace” and noted that

“If employers are allowed to rely on recordings made in violation of the wiretap law, it incentives further violations to occur,” by encouraging employees to surveil each other, which undermines the purpose of the wiretap statute. Shah noted that the Legislature could make changes to the statute, including “to create an exemption for an employee engaged in protected activity or documenting incidents of discrimination or harassment.”

Click here to read more: https://masslawyersweekly.com/2025/01/25/surreptitious-recording-in-workplace-admissible/

Emma Quinn-Judge and Monica Shah speak to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about Amendments to Criminal Procedure Rule 14

Published on: December 17, 2024 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorneys Emma Quinn-Judge and Monica Shah spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the amendments to Rule 14 of the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure. The revisions dramatically reform Rule 14 in response to the SJC’s decision in Committee for Public Counsel Services v. Attorney General, which ordered the an advisory committee to propose a checklist to clarify the definition of exculpatory evidence under Brady and its progeny in response to Massachusetts’ drug lab scandal. Attorneys Quinn-Judge and Shah had submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the Cato Institute and the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, which advocated for such a checklist to ensure that DA’s offices are held accountable for their broad disclosure obligations. Among other changes, revised Rule 14 includes a detailed non-exhaustive definition of the prosecutorial team, defines exculpatory evidence as any evidence “favorable to the defense,” and requires disclosure of such evidence as early as arraignment and the first pre-trial conference. As the article explains, how the rule is implemented will be closely watched by defense attorneys when it goes into effect in March 2025. Read the full article here: Defense lawyers in ‘wait-and-see’ mode on new criminal rule | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Attorney David Russcol Speaks to WBUR About Boston-area Colleges’ New Protest Rules

Published on: September 26, 2024 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney David Russcol Spoke to WBUR about new regulations many Boston-Area Colleges have put into place restricting protest and student speech activity. Read the full article here.

ZDB Files Lawsuit Against the City of Boston and Boston Police Officers

Published on: June 9, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Today ZDB’s Emma Quinn-Judge, Monica Shah, and Ana Muñoz, along with New York law firm, Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP, filed a wrongful conviction and false arrest lawsuit on behalf of Shaun Jenkins against the City of Boston and various Boston police officers. Mr. Jenkins spent nearly two decades wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. For more details and to follow ZDB through the case, click here.

Additional Links:

Federal lawsuit alleges Boston police hid evidence, paid witnesses in murder case

Attorney Ana Munoz Speaks to WBUR About Court Order Striking Boston City Council’s District Map Proposal

Published on: May 12, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Ana Munoz spoke with WBUR about a court order striking down Boston City Council’s new district map. Munoz told Morning Edition “Boston’s a majority minority city, but historically this is not a city that’s had people from minoritized groups be decision makers… how do we figure out how to build a city that looks like our city and reflects the diversity of our city in a way that doesn’t lead to conflict or lawsuits? That’s a really hard problem.” The full segment can be listened to here.

Attorney Naomi Shatz Speaks to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about Title IX Case against the Boston Schools

Published on: May 10, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi Shatz spoke with Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about a recent federal district court decision allowing a Boston public school student’s Title IX lawsuit against the school district to go forward. Shatz told the paper “even in a case where there is no in-school harassment, this decision indicates that a school could be violating Title IX where they don’t address off-campus sexual assaults between two students.” The full article can be read here.

Attorney Monica Shah Speaks to Massachussetts Lawyers Weekly on AI’s Impact on Employment Practices

Published on: March 10, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Monica Shah spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the risks artificial intelligence may pose in the employment context. “One of my concerns is that companies may use AI as a shield or as a way to [deflect] responsibility for decision-making,” Shah told the paper, adding “[u]ltimately, the decision to take an adverse action against an employee is the responsibility of the company itself.” The full article can be found here:

Artificial intelligence poses new ‘twist’ for employment bar

ZDB Attorneys Face Off Against Babson College in Employment Discrimination Case

Published on: February 28, 2023 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorneys Monica Shah and Tom Miller are now representing Lakshmi Balachandra, a female professor of color at Babson College pursuing a legal lawsuit for gender and race-based discrimination. Balachandra faced financial losses, emotional distress, and reputational harm because of persistent mistreatment as well as administrators’ failure to investigate her concerns. Attorney Shah explained to the Globe that “Today, Babson has done nothing to remedy the discriminatory environment that she’s in and has done really nothing to address her concerns…She feels like she has no choice but to file [suit].” Follow the story and ZDB’s quest to help her find justice here.

Additional links:

Mass. College Mistreated South Asian Professor, Suit Says

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz Speaks to Commonwealth Magazine About the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s First Report on Campus Sexual Assault Statistics

Published on: December 30, 2022 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz spoke to Commonwealth Magazine about the Department of Higher Education’s first report to the legislature on campus sexual assault statistics. In January 2021, Governor Baker signed into law “An Act relative to sexual violence on higher education campuses,” which we have previously discussed here. The law requires higher education institutions in Massachusetts to report annual sexual misconduct statistics to the Department of Higher Education, which in turn reports those aggregated statistics to the legislature. For the first reporting year, covering data for 2020, campuses reported a total of 901 sexual misconduct complaints. The data indicates that fewer than one third of these reported cases proceeded through adjudication to a determination of whether the school’s sexual misconduct policy was violated. The article is available here.

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz Speaks to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly About First Circuit Decision in Student Discipline Case

Published on: December 29, 2022 | by Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP

Attorney Naomi R. Shatz spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about a recent First Circuit decision in Doe v. Stonehill College, where the First Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of a student’s breach of contract claims arising out of a sexual misconduct disciplinary process. The First Circuit held that the student had stated a claim for breach of contract based on various provisions in the school’s policies that had not been followed as the student expected they would. As Attorney Shatz told Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly, what is particularly interesting about the decision is that “[I]n assessing whether the school provided a fair process, the court really got into the nitty-gritty of how the people investigating and adjudicating the case at the school made their decisions and whether those decisions were reasonable.” The article is available here, and Attorney Shatz’s blog post on the case is available here.