AGE: 38
POSITION:Partner, Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.
RESIDENCE: Wrentham
LIFELONG AMBITION: To run a marathon
FAVORITE BOOK: ‘Anna Karenina,’ by Leo Tolstoy
GUILTY PLEASURE: McDonald’s Happy Meals
The list of Kristen W. Sherman’s educational and professional achievements is intimidating.
A magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Clark University with a bachelor’s degree in government and international relations, she went on to graduate cum laude from Vermont Law School with a juris doctor degree, while at the same time receiving a master’s degree from VLS in environmental law and public policy, summa cum laude.
She is a shareholder in Adler, Pollock & Sheehan’s litigation and environmental practice groups, meaning that she carries dual responsibilities to her fellow partners. She is a member of both the Boston and Rhode Island bar associations, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Federal District Courts for the Districts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
This spring, she was an expert speaker at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seminar on “Key Environmental Issues in the U.S.,” specifically talking about Superfund and brownfield sites. She has also been involved in product liability litigation. And she is a member of the latest class of Leadership Rhode Island.
But despite inhabiting a world of high-powered suits and lofty arguments, Sherman picked a personal relationship made on the job as the most influential in her professional life.
“From the first day on my job, Dennis Esposito took it upon himself to train me to ‘think like a lawyer,’” she wrote in her 40 Under Forty application. “Over the years, I have been the beneficiary of his constant guidance, support and inspiration.”
While Esposito’s advice was clearly meant to help Sherman develop as an attorney, it just as clearly has informed her development as a person. In 2004 she joined the board of the Rhode Island chapter of the March of Dimes. In 2005 she represented a couple before the Wrentham Conservation Commission in their bid to place 27.8 acres of their land into a “conservation restriction,” to protect wildlife habitat, wetlands, a vernal pool and a stream, while maintaining public access to the land.
Sometimes the little things say the most about a person’s character.
