PROVIDENCE – Three city lawyers will be honored by Lawyers Weekly Inc. for their contributions over the past year “to the rule of law and to justice in the state.”
Neal J. McNamara of Nixon Peabody LLP, Lynnette J. Labinger of Roney & Labinger and Peter J. Comerford of Coia & Lepore Ltd. were selected by Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly as its 2007 Lawyers of the Year, newspaper spokesman Brendon Buckley told Providence Business News today.
McNamara – a labor and employment partner in Nixon Peabody’s Providence office who focuses on both counseling and litigation – was active last year in several high-profile cases, including Horn v. Southern Union Co., in which the court ruled that discrimination cases filed under the R.I. Civil Rights Act have only a one-year statute of limitations. A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he holds a master’s degree in history from Columbia University and earned his J.D. from New York University Law School. He was honored last year by Rhode Island Monthly magazine as “New England Super Lawyer” in labor and employment, based on a peer-reviewed survey.
Labinger – a partner at Roney & Labinger since 1983 – is best known for her victories in cases involving retaliation for First Amendment activity, employment discrimination, abortion rights and student rights. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the New York University School of Law, she is a frequent speaker on topics including Title IX. She is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Rhode Island Bar Foundation.
Comerford – a partner at Coia & Lepore, where he has been a litigation associate since 2000 – has focused on personal injury, real estate, commercial and construction law, tax-sale foreclosures and ERISA issues, and has conducted binding arbitrations as both a litigant and an arbitrator. A cum laude graduate of Providence College, he earned his law degree at St. John’s University. He is a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the R.I. Trial Lawyers Association and the Roger Williams College American Inns of Court.
Each year, the newspaper recognizes three lawyers “who stood out from the crowd” in cases that challenged the court system.
Its 2006 honorees included Fidelma L. Fitzpatrick, who helped Rhode Island win its landmark victory in the state’s lead-paint lawsuit; East Providence mayor Joseph S. Larisa Jr., who helped a landlords’ group overturn a portion of the lead-paint law (in a ruling reversed this year), and represented the Town of Charlestown in the Narragansett Indian Tribe smoke-shop case; and Luis M. Matos, a prosecutor in the ongoing influence-peddling scandal now known as Operation Dollar Bill.
Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly was founded in 1980 to serve the local legal community. It is one of several specialty newspapers published by Dolan Media Co. for the legal, financial and real estate industries. To learn more, visit www.RILawyersWeekly.com.
