Boston, MA, March 23, 2021 – Burns & Levinson is pleased to announce that Debra Giannotti, the practice coordinator and paralegal for Burns & Levinson’s Plaintiff Employment Group, has received the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly 2021 “Excellence in Paralegal Work” award, which celebrates high achieving professionals in the Massachusetts legal community. Giannotti was one of three paralegals chosen for the 2021 recognition. Giannotti has worked at Burns & Levinson for 14 years and is part of a litigation team that handles high-profile whistleblower, discrimination and civil rights cases for plaintiffs who have been wronged in their workplaces. She was the administrative backbone of the team that represented Dennis W. Burke, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital, who raised patient safety concerns about the practice of allowing surgeons to book and conduct multiple surgeries simultaneously and who brought suit against MGH when he was retaliated against for speaking out. The Burns & Levinson team secured a $13 million settlement in November 2019 for Dr. Burke, in addition to his being named to the Honorary Medical Staff at MGH and MGH instituting an annual safety lecture in his name. “When a lawyer stands up in court to argue a hotly contested motion, handles a sensitive deposition or navigates a client through a complicated negotiation, she gets to those moments based on the hard work and diligence of a full team of people. For me, there is no one more central to our work than Deb,” said partner Ellen Zucker, who leads Burns & Levinson’s plaintiff employment practice. “Her diligence, smarts and plentiful compassion – for our clients and for all of us – are defining elements of our practice. We are extraordinarily lucky to have her as a member of the team.” At the firm, Giannotti serves on the Racial Justice Task Force and the Inclusion and Diversity Committee. Outside of work, she is a volunteer with Massachusetts Election Protection and was an online poll watcher in 2020.