Press Release

At an event held on Thursday, April 1, 2010, Ellen J. Zucker, a partner at the Boston-based firm of Burns & Levinson LLP, received her award as one of the Top Lawyer of the Year for 2009. Ms. Zucker was given this honor by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, the statewide lawyers newspaper, that had selected 10 attorneys to honor as “top lawyers” for 2009. Ms. Zucker was also recently listed on Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s Power List.

Calling her a “fabulous litigator,” David Yas, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Lawyers Weekly, honored Ms. Zucker as one of the state’s top lawyers, noting her significant victories both at the trial court and appellate levels. In particular, Yas pointed to a case Ms. Zucker tried in 2008 on behalf of Malvina Monteiro, a former employee of the City of Cambridge, who claimed that she had faced retaliation after filing a complaint of race discrimination. The jury agreed and awarded Ms. Monteiro over $4.5 million in damages. He also noted her significant win before the Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of Dr. Carol Warfield, the former Chief of Anesthesiology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who has brought claims of gender discrimination and retaliation and who prevailed at the trial court and ultimately at the SJC in preventing the BIDMC, its Chief Executive Officer, Paul Levy and its former chief of surgery, Josef Fischer, from forcing her to arbitrate her claims.

Yas’ comments on Thursday echoed the assessment of Lawyer Weekly when it published its Power List of the state’s most influential attorneys in Massachusetts. There Ms. Zucker was described as a “dynamic trial attorney who doesn’t shy away from tough cases, she’s familiar face in legal community and is frequently called upon to advance local and national causes.”

A seasoned litigator and counselor, Ms. Zucker practices in the areas of employment law, representing individuals and employers, business law and white collar criminal defense. Ms. Zucker clerked for the Federal District Court Judge Nancy Gertner, (D.Mass), received her J.D. from Boston College Law School, her M.A. in London School of Economics and Political Science and B.A. from Wesleyan University, where she was graduated with honors in Letters. Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. Zucker was a high school English teacher for several years. She currently resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.