Anthony M. Doniger Takes Office as New BBA President

BBA Update“Tony’s dedication and caring for low income people is evident in the leadershiphe provided during challenging times for IOLTA,” says Jayne Tyrrell, ExecutiveDirector of the Massachusetts IOLTA Committee. “He’s very action oriented;he gets things done.”She credits him in large part with the recent, substantial increase in IOLTArevenue that Massachusetts is now seeing as a result of a revised guideline thatmakes more specific the requirement that banks pay rates on IOLTA accountsthat are comparable to the rates paid on similar, non-IOLTA accounts. She alsosays that during the time when IOLTA rates were plummeting, the good relationshipshe forged with banks helped keep IOLTA revenue relatively stable.The founding Chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Individual Rights andResponsibilities Section, Tony served on the Board of the American Civil LibertiesUnion of Massachusetts (ACLUM) for nearly two decades, and also servedas the organization’s President and General Counsel for a number of years.During that time, Tony litigated a number of ACLUM cases in the courts of theCommonweath, including one in which he successfully argued to the SupremeJudicial Court that there should be no executive privilege recognized inMassachusetts.“Tony has made extraordinary contributions to the cause of civil libertiesthroughout his legal career,” says John Reinstein, legal director of ACLUM.The first BBA President to have a baccalaureate degree from Oxford University,and to have spent six months on a kibbutz before going to law school, Tonygrew up in Great Neck, New York. His father was a publisher of books whohad begun his career as a journalist. His mother, though she never graduatedfrom high school, was one of the innately smartest, most knowledgeable andwell-read people he has ever met.Tony began his undergraduate studies in 1968 at Washington University inSt. Louis. Extremely active in the anti-war movement, he found lots of demonstrationsto organize because of the many corporations headquartered in St. Louiswho were manufacturing the weapons and planes used in the Viet Nam war. Byhis sophomore year, he was running the St. Louis Draft Resistance Group, buthe was also getting burned out on anti-war activities.He applied to and was accepted at Oxford University, and headed off to England,where he started as a first year student and did the full three year course.There he met his wife, Liza Lunt. In 1974, she immigrated with him to the UnitedStates, and they settled in Cambridge, where both went to law school.While many of his classmates were making a bee-line for Boston’s then largestlaw firms, Tony had other ideas. A member of the Harvard Civil Rights CivilLiberties Law Review, where his editor was future U.S. District Court JudgePatti Saris, he was determined to try cases early on in his career, and get lotsof trial experience. For him that meant going to Sugarman, Rogers, a choicehe has never regretted.“I wanted to try cases,” he says. “That’s why I went to law school. I’m stilltrying cases.”By all accounts Tony is a lawyer who takes pride in living an integrated life.His wife, Liza, is a partner at Zalkind, Rodriguez, Lunt & Duncan where shedoes criminal defense work and civil litigation. Tony and Liza live in the BackBay and have two daughters: Kate, 25, Deputy Director of the Red Hook CommunityJustice Center in Brooklyn, New York; and Emma, 23, an art historymaven who works for Doyle New York, an auction house.Tony Doniger onthe BBA Agenda for2007-2008● ONGOINGBBA Diversity Leadership Task Force.“This broad-based multi-year initiative iscommitted to addressing the need forgreater ethnic and racial diversity in thelegal profession. Last year, my predecessor,Jack Cinquegrana, boldly mobilizeda task force consisting of highly respectedleaders who come from all segments ofthe legal profession, and they are committedto taking a fresh look at this issue, withan eye toward determining what role theBBA can play in achieving real improvementin this area. I am committed to seeingthis important project through.”● NEWBBA Task Force on Civil Right toCounsel. “Underscoring the BBA’scommitment to expanding access to justicefor low-income people, this task forcewill convene knowledgeable and thoughtfulpeople to develop a practical game planon how to expand and make comprehensivea right to counsel for low incomepeople in civil proceedings where basichuman needs are at stake. The BBACouncil unanimously voted more than ayear ago to endorse an ABA resolutioncalling for such a civil right to counsel; wemust now focus our energies on how toimplement it.”Develop Long-Range Plan and MissionStatement. “This will be a year ofinstitutional soul-searching. Our predecessororganization, the Suffolk CountyBar Association founded by John Adams,was a bunch of rebels talking revolution.We’re not talking revolution any more, butwe are committed to serving the professionand ser ving our members, andtherefore we must respond to the profoundchanges in the legal landscape andprofession that have crept up on us overthe past decade. Among other things, thiswill be the focus of our retreat for barleaders.”