BU Law Alumni Elected Officers of Massachusetts Bar Association
John J. Morrissey (’92) and Christopher A. Kenney (’90) have been elected vice president and treasurer for the MBA’s 2016–2017 year.
Boston University School of Law alumni John J. Morrissey (’92) and Christopher A. Kenney (’90) have been elected officers of the Massachusetts Bar Association for its 2016–2017 year, beginning on September 1. Morrissey was elected vice-president, and Kenney was elected treasurer. Kenney is a former president of the Boston University School of Law Alumni Association (2010–2011).
About John J. Morrissey (vice president)
Morrissey is a founding partner of Morrissey, Wilson & Zafiropoulos LLP in Braintree, where he has a trial practice handling personal injury claims, including wrongful death, catastrophic injury and workers’ compensation claims. He also represents individuals and businesses in commercial and real estate disputes.
Morrissey serves as a chair of the MBA’s Membership Committee. He is also a member of the MBA Executive Management Board, an arbitrator with the MBA Fee Arbitration Board and a member of the MBA’s Workplace Safety Task Force. Morrissey has served on the House of Delegates and as chair of the MBA Judicial Administration Section Council. In 2013, Morrissey volunteered to participate in the MBA Marathon Bombing Victims’ Legal Assistance Program, where he provided free legal services to victims of the marathon bombings.
Morrissey is a member of the Board of Bar Overseers of the Supreme Judicial Court. He has served as a member of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys’ Board of Governors and its Executive Committee. Morrissey is also a life fellow and has served as a member of the Grant Advisory Committees of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation.
Morrissey was appointed a commissioner of the Hingham Conservation Commission by the board of selectmen in 2014 and serves as a director of Independent Bank Corporation and Rockland Trust Company. Independent Bank Corp has approximately $7.2 billion in assets and is the holding company for Rockland Trust Company, a full service commercial bank headquartered in Massachusetts.
An accomplished trial lawyer, Morrissey has been named a New England Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers every year since 2005. Morrissey received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1989.
About Christopher A. Kenney (treasurer)
A founding member and managing shareholder of Kenney & Sams PC in Boston, Kenney has tried cases before every level of the state and federal trial court system in Massachusetts, and has served as an appellate advocate before the Massachusetts Appellate Division, Massachusetts Appeals Court, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
A co-chair of the MBA’s Leadership Academy, Kenney also chairs the MBA’s Consumer Advocacy Task Force and is a member of the MBA’s Executive Management Board. He has also served in the association’s House of Delegates and is a former chair of the MBA’s Civil Litigation Section. In addition to his work with the MBA, Kenney is a former president of the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association (MDLA), former president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and former co-president of the Boston Inn of Court. The MDLA named Kenney the 2012 Massachusetts Defense Lawyer of the Year.
Kenney has served as an adjunct faculty member at BU Law, and frequently writes and lectures for business groups, trade associations and bar associations. Most recently, he was appointed to serve as director of the IADC Trial Academy at Stanford University Law School. BU Law honored Kenney in 2012 with the Silver Shingle Award for outstanding service to the law school.
Kenney earned his BA from College of the Holy Cross in 1987 and lives in Sudbury.
Alongside Morrissey and Kenney, the other 2016–2017 MBA officers include: President Jeffrey N. Catalano, West Roxbury; President-elect Christopher P. Sullivan, Hingham; and Secretary Denise I. Murphy, Westwood.