atLaw
Kathleen E. Cross
617 226-3433
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Areas of Concentration
Business Litigation
Business Separation
Education Law
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An expectant hush fell over the Federal Courthouse, Courtroom 10, as the Honorable Suzanne Del Vecchio entered with a flourish and ten jurors were assembled and seated in the jury box ready to take their oaths and begin their service in Cook v. Boston Middle School.
As is the custom at the outset of trial, each lawyer for the plaintiffs and the defendants then rose and introduced themselves to the court and jurors striking the affectation that each believed would lend the best first impression to the ten people in the box who would decide their clients’ fate. Seven attorneys appeared in all—perhaps excessive for a straightforward civil action that would be tried in 90 minutes or less. The catch? The seven trial “lawyers” were apprentices from the Dorchester Community Campus of the Citizens School, ranging in age from 10 to 13 years old. The Citizens School is an after-school charter school network dedicated to integrating the children of the City of Boston with the professionals of Boston who practice law, run banks, make television documentaries, design interiors and roll sushi, to mention a few.
For the last two years, our students have made the trek on the T from Dorchester to downtown Boston once a week to learn about the law and trying cases from the lawyers of Hanify & King. For ten weeks, the core teaching team of Hanify & King lawyers integrate their skills as litigators and corporate attorneys with those of grade school teachers to help the children prepare to try a case before a real judge in a real courtroom.
Last year, after guest lectures by the firm’s finest, an afternoon at the federal court with a federal judge and an Assistant United States Attorney, five mock depositions, and a lot of practice, the apprentices tried Cook v. Boston Middle School before a jury of lawyers, public officials and assorted volunteers. The Honorable Suzanne Del Vecchio, the Chief Judge of the Superior Court, presided last spring and the witnesses were culled from ranks of Hanify & King’s lawyers and staff. The gallery was filled with proud family and friends of the apprentices as well as Hanify & King’s attorneys and their families.
The facts of the case hit close to home in the young lives of the apprentices. Tracey Cook, an eighth grader at Boston Middle School had been abruptly expelled for violating the school’s “Zero Tolerance” Rule prohibiting possession of a dangerous weapon. Tracey’s mother had packed a butter knife in Tracey’s lunch along with a chicken breast. The knife fell out of her lunch bag in the playground and Tracey was escorted to the principal’s office. After being expelled, Tracey brought the suit, seeking the right to return to school. Last year, eight of the ten jurors agreed, and Tracey was headed back to school, as did our apprentices.
This spring, a new group of eight apprentices has committed to learning the basics of a trial with all of the enthusiasm and trepidation reserved for performance in a world usually inhabited by adults alone. Once again, our apprentices will be pleading their cases to a jury before a state or federal judge in the new federal courthouse. The trial is on the docket for the evening of May 22, 2001. You and your children are welcome to join us and witness, first hand, whether the infamous butter knife will keep Tracey Cook from returning to school.
