Today we mark the last day of Kathy Burns’s career as a public defender. Kathy’s extensive work with CPCS was actually her second career. Before going to law school and becoming a bar advocate, Kathy worked for a dozen years with the city of New Bedford’s Department of Public Works – where she ultimately became Commissioner. Her work in her second career, however, is what we recognize today.
For more than 25 years, Kathy has played critical roles in Bristol County for CPCS. After initially representing clients in criminal and juvenile delinquency trials and in criminal appeals, Kathy shifted in the mid-1990’s to the representation of parents and children in state intervention/child welfare cases. She quickly established herself as a strong advocate for her clients and was recognized as having excellent litigation skills; knowing what the important issues were in her cases; and having vast knowledge of child welfare law. She was particularly well-versed in the Indian Child Welfare Act, an important and detailed federal law that affects many care and protection/termination of parental rights cases. Kathy’s talents as a lawyer and her commitment to her clients led to her becoming CAFL’s Regional Coordinator for Bristol County in 2000. In that role, she helped improve the quality of representation provided by other CAFL lawyers through training, support, and oversight.
In 2011, in view of her leadership and advocacy skills, CPCS selected Kathy to be the first Attorney in Charge of CAFL’s new Fall River office. Given the respect that Kathy had earned from her colleagues over the year, and given the other skills that she brought to the position, the establishment of our staff office in Fall River proved to be fairly straightforward. First in response to the legislature’s 25% mandate, and then in the wake of a massive increase in the number of children being removed from their homes by DCF, the office grew, with Kathy providing a steady hand to the new staff whom we brought on board. Along the way, Kathy played a vital role in protecting our office’s social work staff from being forced to testify by DCF.
As an attorney for parents and children, as Regional Coordinator, and finally as Attorney in Charge, Kathy has contributed immensely to protecting the rights of our clients and in achieving their objectives, in her own cases, through work done by private attorneys, and through her leadership of our staff office. Last but not least, it has been a pleasure for us to work with Kathy. Please join us in thanking Kathy for her many years of service to CPCS clients and her colleagues and in congratulating her on her retirement.
Anthony Benedetti
Chief Counsel
Mike Dsida
Deputy Chief Counsel
Nancy Baratta
Managing Director