6:00PM-8:30PM
You are Invited to a Cornell Law School and Cornell Law Association Networking Event
Outside the Law Firm:
Lawyers' Perspectives on Opportunities in the Public Sector
Join our panelists and hear how they are using their Cornell Law School education in the public sector and for their work in public interest. They will share their experiences and offer insight to those who are considering employment in these important and sometimes overlooked fields. Adding to this terrific networking opportunity, Karen Comstock, Assistant Dean for Public Service will give an update on how the Law School prepares students for this special work and will provide an overview of the changing landscape in this dynamic market.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
6:00 PM Networking Reception
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Program
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM Q&A
Goodwin Procter, LLP
Exchange Place, 53 State Street (Second Floor)
Boston, MA
Cost: $20 per person
A special thanks to Paul W. Lee, JD '76, and Goodwin Procter for hosting this event.
Please Register Online by Thursday, November 5th or by calling the Alumni Affairs Office at 607.255.5251.
See Who's Coming
Meet Our Panel
Karen V. Comstock, Assistant Dean for Public Service, Cornell Law School
Karen Comstock was appointed as Cornell Law School's first Assistant Dean for Public Service in April, 2004. Her position was created to give public service more prominence at the Law School and to create more opportunities for law students to get involved. Assistant Dean Comstock provides career counselling to students and alumni on all aspects of the public sector job search, organizes programs to educate students about legal career opportunities, manages the Cyrus Mehri Public Interest speaker series, and develops employer contacts and job search resources. She also organizes pro bono projects, and oversees fundraising efforts for Law School public interest programs, including the Public Interest Low Income Protection Plan. Assistant Dean Comstock serves as an adjunct professor of law for the law school's summer externship program. Prior to April 2004 she was the Assistant Dean for Career Services. From 1989-1994 Assistant Dean Comstock held the position as Brooklyn Law School's first Public Interest Coordinator. Previous experience includes work with the New York Public Interest Research Group, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the Office of the U.S. Senate Legal Counsel, and a 1984 Ralph Nader voter education project. In 2008-2009 she chaired the Public Service Section of the National Association of Law Placement. She is a long-standing member of the NALP GLBT Committee and the Association of American Law School's sections on Student Services and Public Interest and Pro Bono Opportunities. She is a certified mediator with the NYS Unified Court System, a volunteer with the Community Dispute Resolution Center in Ithaca, NY, and a certified administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Assistant Dean Comstock received her B.S. in 1984 and J.D. in 1989 from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Peter G. Coulombe, JD '94, Counsel, Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement Division
Peter Coulombe graduated from Yale University in 1991 summa cum laude, and Cornell Law School in 1994. While at Cornell, Peter was an active member of the Public Interest Law Union and the Lambda Law Students Association. After law school he returned to his home state of Connecticut where he worked briefly in private practice before joining the New Haven Legal Assistance Association as a staff attorney focusing on family law and public benefits. In 2000, Peter moved to Boston and joined the family law unit of Greater Boston Legal Services. As a Senior Attorney in the unit, he represented low-income victims of domestic violence in the family law cases and on public policy issues, specializing in the area of child support. In 2006, Peter entered government service as in-house counsel to the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. His current practice focuses on major policy issues facing the agency, including child support guidelines, medical support, employer compliance, disclosure, and federal regulation.
Mary B. Griffin, JD '88, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game
Mary Griffin is the first woman Commissioner to the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game. The Department exercises responsibility over the state's marine and freshwater fisheries, wildlife species, plants and natural communities, and the habitats that support them. Mary has been an environmental professional for the past eighteen years. She previously served as Acting Deputy Commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Prior to that role, she served as Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Resource Protection at MassDEP, which protects inland and coastal water resources, including wetlands.
Commissioner Griffin has served as General Counsel to the Secretary of Environmental Affairs and Boston Harbor Regional Coordinator at the Office of Coastal Zone Management. As Chief of Legal Services for the state parks system, she managed the agencys land acquisition program. The Commissioner served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. In the private sector, she practiced environmental law at the Boston firm of WilmerHale.
She is a graduate of Davidson College and Cornell Law School. She lives in Hingham, Massachusetts with her two sons.
Paul W. Lee, JD '76, Partner, Goodwin Procter, LLP and 2006 Recipient of the Public Interest Award
Paul W. Lee is a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston. Paul concentrates on corporate and securities law and representing high technology and financial services companies. Paul has over 30 years experience advising boards of directors and representing large and small public and privately held companies in connection with business, securities and M&A transactional matters. He has served as chair of GP's Corporate Department and on several firm committees relating to associate compensation and evaluation. Paul has served on the ABA Board of Governors and is a 2007 recipient of the Spirit of Excellence Award from the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. He is a past president of the National Asia Pacific American Bar Association and the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts. In August 2009 he was named a NAAAP 100 leader by the National Association of Asian American Professionals. Included in the inaugural class of six Asian American leaders were architect/designer Maya Lin, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and playwright David Henry Hwang. Paul is a graduate of Columbia University (B.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and received his J.D., cum laude, from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell International Law Journal.
Craig A. MacDonnell, JD '83, Principal, Nine Acre Partners
Craig MacDonnell is an environmental lawyer and a conservationist. Most recently, Craig formed Nine Acre Partners, a consulting and development firm specializing in energy efficient residential construction and other conservation efforts.
Prior to this private sector work, Craig was as State Director for the non-profit Trust for Public Land, where for eight years Craig managed the land conservation efforts of TPL in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In this capacity, Craig and his staff successfully conserved thousands of acres of land while raising 100% of TPL's budget philanthropically.
Before working in the land conservation field, Craig enjoyed private practice as a partner in a mid-sized firm, Keegan & Werlin, for a number of years, which provided a great diversity of environmental projects ranging from energy facility siting to litigating environmental cost recovery matters and land-use permitting.
Craig's experience also includes time in state service as legislative liaison and legal counsel to the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Environmental Law Enforcement, where he was initiated into the byzantine world of Beacon Hill and enjoyed working on various public resource issues relating to hunting, fishing, endangered species, land acquisition, and regulation of whitewater rafting and jet skis.
Craig began his career at Nutter, McClennen & Fish litigating Superfund cases and related insurance disputes. NM&F also provided Craig an externship at Greater Boston Legal Services, where he represented indigent defendants in the Housing and District Courts.
Moderator: Mela Lew, JD '86, Board of Bar Examiners, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Mela Lew is a Bar Examiner with the Board of Bar Examiners of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is also a member of the Character and Fitness Committee of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Mela is a 2008 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, from which she received her Master of Public Administration. Immediately prior, she was a Partner and the General Counsel of Atlas Venture, an international venture capital firm with over $2 billion under management. Before Atlas Venture, she served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Oak Industries Inc., a NYSE company that was acquired by Corning Incorporated in 2000. Mela earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School, and an A.B. in French Literature and Sociology from Smith College. She serves on the non-profit Boards of the Center for Women & Enterprise, the Milele Children's Fund for Kenyan school children and on the Board of Advisors of the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Mela lives in Hamilton, Massachusetts with her husband and two young children.
