BOSTON, June 10, 2016—A Suffolk County prosecutor assigned to Roxbury Municipal Court was honored last night after her outstanding trial work during the 2016 Advanced Trial Training program, which brings dozens of young lawyers from across eastern Massachusetts together to hone their courtroom skills, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
Assistant District Attorney Anna Lusardi received the Paul McLaughlin Advocacy Award for Top Prosecutor following the culmination of the six-month program, the mock trial of Commonwealth v. Green in the Oliver Wendell Holmes courtroom of the John Adams Courthouse in downtown Boston. The award is named after an assistant attorney general assigned to the Suffolk DA’s office before his 1995 murder; it was presented by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke, the regional administrative justice for Suffolk County, who was a friend and colleague of McLaughlin. Daniel J. Gaudet, a staff attorney from the Committee for Public Counsel Services, received the Peter J. Muse Advocacy Award for Top Defense Counsel.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Anna Lusardi gives her opening statement at the mock trial that marked the culmination of the 2016 Advanced Trial Training Program. Currently assigned to Roxbury Municipal Court, Lusardi was one of dozens of prosecutors and defense attorneys to take part in the exercise, which hones lawyers’ courtroom skills by pairing them with experienced trial lawyers during a months-long program. She received the Paul McLaughlin Advocacy Award for Top Prosecutor after the proceedings.
“I couldn’t be more proud of ADA Lusardi for representing the office and the prosecutor’s mission so well,” Conley said. “She, her mentors, and her colleagues and counterparts from across the state invested so much time and effort in this project, and I’m thrilled to see it recognized.”
A graduate of Suffolk University Law School, Lusardi came to the Suffolk DA’s office as an intern in 2011 and was hired in 2013 to a position in West Roxbury Municipal Court. She transferred to Roxbury, one of the busiest courthouses in New England, last year. She partnered with Assistant District Attorney Jessica Stone of Bristol County for last night’s finals. Lusardi gave the opening statement and Stone gave the closing argument; both called, examined, and cross-examined witnesses.
The Advanced Trial Training Program is a joint project by Conley’s office, CPCS, Suffolk Lawyers for Justice, and Judge Robert Tochka of the Boston Municipal Court. It pairs junior prosecutors and defense attorneys from Bristol, Essex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester counties with more experienced mentors to sharpen their courtroom skills. The dozens of participants are winnowed down to two prosecutors and two defense attorneys who represent the parties at a final mock trial.
Assistant District Attorney Anna Lusardi (left) won the Paul McLaughlin Advocacy Award for Top Prosecutor at the 2016 Advanced Trial Training Program following months of preparation by dozens of Massachusetts prosecutors and defense attorneys. She was joined by Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley; her supervisor in Roxbury Municipal Court, Assistant District Attorney Tonya Platt; and one of her mentors, Assistant District Attorney Myriam Feliz, who won last year’s McLaughlin Award.
The facts of this year’s trial were drawn from a real domestic violence prosecution, and “witnesses” were played by students from the Another Course to College preparatory school in Boston. The verdict was decided by a “jury” made up of past participants in the program and their mentors. Legal rulings were made by Justice Margot Botsford of the Supreme Judicial Court with CPCS Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti and Conley.
In the gallery of spectators were many of Lusardi’s fellow Suffolk prosecutors, including Assistant District Attorney Tonya Platt, her supervisor in Roxbury court, and Assistant District Attorney Myriam Feliz – who won last year’s McLaughlin Award as a Chelsea District Court prosecutor, now handles domestic violence and sexual assault cases in Suffolk Superior Court, and mentored Lusardi throughout this year’s program.
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