MBF Awards
& Honors

Great Friend of Justice Award

The MBF’s Great Friend of Justice Award is presented each year at our Annual Meeting to an individual who has demonstrated extraordinary passion for justice, consistent with the MBF’s values and mission of increasing access to justice for all. 

2023 MBF Great Friend of Justice Recipient 

Hon. Geraldine S. Hines - Retired Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Hon. Geraldine S. Hines is a retired Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. She began her judicial career in 2000 as a judge on the Superior Court, where she served for 12 years before being appointed to the Appeals Court in 2013. Governor Deval Patrick appointed her to the state’s highest court in 2014. At the time of her appointment, Justice Hines was the first African American woman to serve on the Court in its 322-year history.

Prior to her judicial tenure, Justice Hines’ practice was concentrated on criminal defense and civil rights litigation. She served as cooperating counsel with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the ACLU of Massachusetts. As a trial lawyer, Justice Hines represented criminal defendants in murder cases and other major felonies. Her civil rights practice focused on the litigation of police misconduct and employment discrimination claims. In addition to her practice, Justice Hines was an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern University School of Law. She has continued to educate students since her retirement from the bench, having been named the Rappaport Distinguished Visiting Professor at Boston College Law School in 2018. Presently, she is the Huber Distinguished Visiting Professor at Boston College Law School.

Justice Hines has been actively involved in international human rights. She was a founding member of Lawyers Against Apartheid and Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty as a member of a joint National Conference of Black Lawyers/National Lawyers Guild delegation. In 1991, she served as an election observer in the referendum on Eritrean independence and as an observer in South Africa’s first multi-racial election in 1994. In 2010, she participated in the International Judicial Academy’s international law program, observing war crimes trials in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda at the International Criminal Court.

Justice Hines graduated from Tougaloo College in Mississippi in 1968 and from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1971. She has been a member of the Massachusetts Bar for more than 50 years.

Previous Recipients

2022 Dr. Jim O’Connell - Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program

2021 Hon. Patti B. Saris

2020 Attorney General Maura Healey

2019 Susan M. Finegan, Esq.

  • 2018 Lonnie A. Powers

    2017 Hon. Ralph D. Gants

    2016 Mary L. Bonauto, Esq.

    2015 Jerry Cohen, Esq.

    2014 Kenneth R. Feinberg, Esq. & Michael E. Mone, Sr., Esq.

    2013 Leo V. Boyle, Esq.

    2012 Hon. William G. Young

    2011 Attorney General Martha Coakley

    2010 Governor Deval L. Patrick

    2009 Hon. John M. Greaney

    2008 Hon. Roderick L. Ireland

    2007 Anthony Lewis

    2006 Hon. Nancy Gertner

    2005 Steven L. Wollman, Esq.

    2004 Richard Johnston, Esq. & Jayne Tyrrell, Esq.

    2003 MarDee Xifaras, Esq. Citizens Bank

    2002 Perkins, Smith, & Cohen

    2001 Capital Crossing Bank & Eastern Bank

    2000 Hon. Margaret Marshall

President's Award

The MBF’s President’s Award is presented annually at our Grantee Reception(s) to an individual or firm. The award is given to those who have shown great dedication to the MBF’s mission through involvement in the MBF Society of Fellows, participation on our Grant Review Committees, or as members of the MBF Law Firm & Corporate Partners Program.

2023 President’s Award Recipients

Jeffrey J. Trapani, Esq. - Northampton, MA

John Achatz, Esq. - Boston, MA

John Achatz accepted the award at the October 12 Grantee Reception.

John Achatz, Esq. practiced real estate law in Boston, first as an associate and then partner at Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer, and later as Of Counsel with Klein Hornig LLP. His practice centered on development, preservation, and financing of affordable housing and urban mixed-use projects. A small but especially satisfying specialty was representing groups of artists in creating artist-owned live-work studio buildings.

John participated in the founding of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, the Lawyers Clearinghouse, and the American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing. He has served on the boards of Emmanuel Music, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Shakespeare Company, and Old Stories: New Lives, among others. He was also a trustee of the Boston Conservatory.

As an Access to Justice Fellow since 2018, John has been a volunteer attorney with legal services organizations, representing and advising immigration clients seeking asylum and other forms of protection. Originally at De Novo Center for Justice and Healing, he has since volunteered with many other organizations, including Immigrant Family Services Institute, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, and Rian Immigrant Center.

John is an Oliver Wendell Holmes Fellow of the MBF. He has been a dedicated grant review volunteer for nearly two decades.

Jeffrey Trapani accepted the award at the October 4 Grantee Reception.

Jeffrey J. Trapani, Esq. is Of Counsel to Pierce Davis & Perritano LLP, where he concentrates in civil litigation, including insurance defense, employment law, municipal liability, business litigation, and professional malpractice. He also represents landlords in summary process action and housing discrimination claims and insurance companies in unfair settlement claims and coverage issues. Jeff often appears before the Federal and State Courts throughout Massachusetts, as well as various administrative agencies, including the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. In addition to trial work, Jeff represents clients in mediations and arbitrations.

When he is not in the courtroom, Jeff has participated as a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s (MBA) House of Delegates, as a member of the Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure of the Supreme Judicial Court, as a Representative for Hampshire County Bar Association on the MBA’s Joint Bar Committee on Judicial Appointments, and as a Hearing Officer for the Board of Bar Overseers. He has been an active member of the Legislative Steering Committee of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, having served as Chairman.

Jeff earned his BA from Wake Forest University and his JD from New England School of Law. He is a Louis D. Brandeis Fellow of the MBF and has been a dedicated grant reviewer for the Western Mass. Regional Grant Advisory Committee.

Previous Recipients

2022 Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP & Michelle Bugbee, Esq.

2020 Paul J. Klehm, Esq.

2019 Elizabeth M. Lynch

2018 Lawrence J. Farber, Esq. & Albert P. Zabin, Esq.

  • 2017 H Theodore Cohen, Esq. & Robert C. Ware, Esq.

    2016 Robert S. Molloy, Esq. & James T. Van Buren, Esq.

    2015 Charles J. DiMare, Esq. & Elaine M. Epstein, Esq.

    2014 Roy A. Hammer, Esq.

    2013 Hon. Robert G. Fields & Davis, Malm & D'Agostine, P.C.

    2012 Archer B. Battista, Esq. & Lu Ann Reeb

    2011 Robert A. Sable, Esq. & Wendy Sibbison, Esq.

    2010 Meade G. Burrows, Esq. & Lewis C. Eisenberg, Esq.

    2009 Janet F. Aserkoff, Esq. & Scott W. Foster, Esq.

    2008 John J. Carroll, Jr., Esq. & David E. Sullivan, Esq.