Irish America magazine - Oct/Nov '08 issue: The Legacy of the San Patricios Lives On , Stars of the South, The Legal 100, Roots: The Mighty Mahers, All Hail The Humble Spud! , Music: Still Fiddlin’ Away , The Real Bill , The Battle over Ulysses, Broadway's Irish Colleen

Irish America is proud to present its inaugural Legal 100 feature. The following list is comprised of lawyers from all around the country who share a passion for the law and pride in their heritage.

A-De | Do-Ho | Hy-N | O-W

Bob Donnelly is an entertainment lawyer at the New York office of the law firm of Lommen, Abdo, Cole, King and Stageberg. Donnelly, who has focused his practice on the music industry for 30 years, has represented an eclectic group of artists, including Hasidic rapper Matisyahu and Bill Whelan, the composer for Riverdance. A recent lawsuit Donnelly pursued in New York netted $55 million in past due royalties for thousands of music artists. He also settled the largest case in world music on behalf of four Irish clients and represents a large number of Celtic musical artists.

All four of Donnelly’s grandparents were born in Ireland. On his mother’s side they hailed from Monaghan and Cavan, and on his father’s from Fermanagh. Donnelly received his undergraduate degree from Providence College, his law degree from St. John’s University, and a master's degree from Columbia University. A member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, he is married to Marie Donnelly and they have three children, Chris, Cindy and Alexis.

Larry Downes is a partner in the law firm of Gilroy, Downes, Horowitz and Goldstein where he focuses on civil rights, commercial litigation and tort cases.

He is also the president and a founding member of the Friends of Sinn Féin, and says the organization strives to play a significant role in the Irish peace process. “We continue to work toward a united Ireland which, of course, is our ultimate goal,” he says.

Downes, who grew up in Bayside, Queens, earned his undergraduate degree from Queens College and his law degree from Hofstra. He began his career at the law firm of O’Dwyer and Bernstien and says that civil rights lawyer Paul O'Dwyer, who, along with Frank Durkan, founded the Brehon Law Society, was an inspiration to him.

A second-generation Irish-American on both sides, Downes’ grandparents hailed from Cork, Mayo and Carlow. He has visited Ireland a number of times and connected with distant relatives who still live there.

New York personal injury attorney Sean Downes represents a broad range of clients. One standout case occurred in 1996 when Downes won $3.25 million for a pregnant woman whose construction worker husband was killed when he fell from a building.

A Bayside, Queens native, Downes earned his bachelor’s degree from Queens College (he spent his junior year in Dublin, where he became passionate about the political issues in Ireland), and his law degree from Hofstra University. His brothers, Larry (who is also on this list), Kevin and Chris are also lawyers. He is involved in the Brehon (Irish) Law Society and credits his first big break to working to help Sean Mackin become the first Irish person to obtain political asylum in the U.S. He is one of the founders, along with his brother Larry, of the Friends of Sinn Féin.

Downes is married to Marianne, his wife of 20 years, and they have two daughters, Mollie and Katie.

John Driscoll served in the New York City Police Department for 34 years, taking a year’s leave of absence in 1981 to serve as Assistant District Attorney in Queens County. Recently retired, he is now a director for BlueCrest Capital Management, a hedge fund. For the past 11 years, Driscoll has served as the president of the NYPD Captain's Endowment Association, the union that represents captains through deputy chiefs.

Driscoll, who graduated from St. John’s University, School of Law in 1978, was honored by the New York State Bar Association in 1992 for Outstanding Police Contribution to the Criminal Justice System.

A first-generation Irish-American whose father, a native of Skibereen in County Cork, spent 35 years in the police force, Driscoll has visited Ireland over 20 times. His mother is from Glenmaddy in County Galway. His wife, Phylis Byrne-Driscoll, a captain in the NYPD, has served as the honorary Grand Marshal of the Queens St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The couple lives with their three children in Rockville Centre, New York.

Jenny A. Durkan is a Washington State Attorney known for both her successful trial practice and for her continued civic leadership. She has worked on a number of notable cases, including as trial counsel defending the election of Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire.

Durkan served on civic panels relating to police integrity and chaired the former Attorney General’s Task force on Consumer Privacy. She also taught Trial Advocacy at the University of Washington Law School.

A founding board member of the Center for Women and Democracy, Durkan also completed political training in Morocco. She received her law degree from the University of Washington, and spent her Junior year of college in Dublin. Her grandfather, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1898, served in the Montana state legislature, as did her father, who became an Irish citizen.

John D. Feerick heads up Fordham Law School’s Center for Social Justice and Dispute Resolution, which provides students with hands-on clinical programs devoted to issues of poverty. He is also the Chairman of the NYS Commission on Public Integrity.

Responding to a State Department invitation, Feerick was awarded a government grant to gather 22 Northern Irish community leaders, 11 Catholic and 11 Protestant, and teach them mediation skills, working on creating peace from the street level up. In 1999, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Irish Historical Society for his work.

A graduate of the St. Angela Merici elementary school in the South Bronx, Feerick received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University and graduated from Fordham Law School in 1961. He practiced at the New York law firm of Skadden Arps for 21 years, and went on to serve as Dean of Fordham Law for 20 years.

Feerick, whose parents were both natives of County Mayo but met in New York, is married with six children and eleven grandchildren. He is a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York.

Joseph Fegan is a partner and head of litigation at the Brooklyn law firm of Cullen and Dykman. He has more than 24 years of experience as a litigator with a primary focus on trial practice and tort and insurance litigation, and has tried over 100 jury trials to verdict as well as numerous bench trials and arbitrations. In addition to his experience as a trial lawyer, Fegan has also briefed and argued numerous appeals in the Appellate Courts of New York State. A Bronx native, Fegan served as counsel to the New York Claims Association, a group of insurance carriers and self-insureds in the New York area. He is a member of the Brooklyn Bar Association and has authored several articles and given lectures on trial practice.

Fegan is a graduate of St. John's University, where he received both his undergraduate and law degrees, and is also a member and past president of the Long Island Emerald Association.

A third-generation Irish-American whose father’s family hails from Dublin, and whose mother’s family is from County Galway, Fegan is married and has three children, two sons and a daughter.

William Fenrich is a member of Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Litigation Department.

He joined Davis Polk in 1999 and became a partner in 2005. Over the years he has represented numerous broker-dealers and their employees in a number of matters relating to equity research practices, including Credit Suisse First Boston, NASD and NYSE.

Fenrich graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and in 1997 received his J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Fordham University School of Law, where he was research editor of the law review.

He clerked for the Honorable Thomas J. Meskill, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, from 1998 to 1999, and for the Honorable Loretta A. Preska, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, from 1997 to 1998. A first-generation Irish-American whose parents were both from Mayo, Fenrich is an active member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He has been honored by the American Irish Historical Society and the New York State Bar Association and holds honorary degrees from Fordham University and the College of New Rochelle.

Patrick Fitzgerald is the U.S. Attorney in Northern Illinois who headed the 2005 investigation into the leak of the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. It was his research that led to the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby. Fitzgerald’s controversial decision to question New York Times journalist Judith Miller, which ultimately led to her jailing, garnered a great deal of criticism, but Fitzgerald maintains that her testimony played a pivotal role in leveling charges against Libby. This was not the first time Fitzgerald’s work made headlines. He was a major figure in the prosecution of the perpetrator of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

Fitzgerald attended the Jesuit-run Regis High School in New York and went on to attend Amherst College and Harvard Law School, where he pursued a passion for rugby as well as for law. On his summers off, Fitzgerald’s strong work ethic kept him busy and he worked as a doorman, following in his father’s footsteps.

Both of Fitzgerald’s parents immigrated to the United States from County Clare. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Timothy Flanagan is a partner at the law firm of Cullen and Dykman in Brooklyn, New York. He handles commercial, construction and insurance liability claims and has extensive trial and appellate experience in these areas. He has also handled numerous medical malpractice claims and served for three years on the Malpractice Prevention Committee of the Church Charities Foundation, which owned and operated hospitals and nursing homes throughout the New York area. Flanagan is an active member of the Brooklyn and New York Bar Associations, as well as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has served on various committees throughout the years.

Flanagan is a fourth-generation Irish-American. His father’s family hailed from Roscommon and his mother’s from Kilkenny. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and attended law school at Syracuse, where he graduated cum laude and served on the Moot Court Board.

He and his wife Nancy, a second-generation Irish-American whose maiden name was also Flanagan, have three children, Caroline, Claire and Fiona.

Michael Gallagher, who practices in Houston at the Gallagher Law Firm, has been honored annually as one of the Best Lawyers in America since 1983 and has been a Texas Super Lawyer since 2003.

He has been recognized as a leader in environmental, pharmaceutical and product liability litigation, is board certified in personal injury trial law, and obtained the largest verdict in the U.S. in the case against Fen-Phen and the second largest in the Rezulin case.

A past president of the Texas Trial Lawyers’ Association and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, Gallagher did his preparatory education at the University of Houston and earned his LL.B. in 1965 from the University of Texas.

Gallagher, who traces his Irish roots to County Donegal, is a hit both in court and out – he has the highest amateur batting average in the history of baseball in Houston.

Peter J. Gleason is a private practice lawyer who serves as counsel to Levine & Gilbert, a New York law firm specializing in personal injury, accident and health, insurance, wrongful death, civil law, and service law.

A former New York City police officer and firefighter, Gleason earned his J.D. from City University of New York Law School. He was also a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve for over 20 years before retiring as a lieutenant.

Aside from his work as a private practice lawyer, Gleason is involved in public service as are his two brothers and his parents. He says that the family’s dedication to the greater community is by way of giving thanks for the opportunities that America afforded his four grandparents who emigrated from Ireland.

Prior to her election to Manhattan’s Surrogate Court, Judge Kristen Booth Glen spent ten years as the Dean of the City University of New York Law School.

Glen, whose grandparents hailed from County Leitrim, received her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. from Columbia University Law School. The family claims relationship to Irish politician and nationalist Countess Markiewicz (nee Gore-Booth), the first woman in Europe to hold a cabinet position.

The divorced mother of a son and daughter, Glen was a friend of the late activist and civil rights lawyer Paul O’Dwyer, who was her son’s godfather.

She has received numerous honors, including the Brehon (Irish) Law Society's 1999 Distinguished Service Award and was honored by the National Lawyers’ Guild in 2000. Glen remains supportive of the Joseph Doherty Civil Rights Fellowship for CUNY Law, a scholarship given to students in honor of the Irish activist's struggle.

As a senior partner at Bryan Cave, LLP, James Gill practices in labor and regulatory affairs. Joining Robinson, Silverman and Pearce in 1964 before it merged with Bryan Cave, Gill has remained loyal to the firm for more than 43 years.

A graduate of Holy Cross College and Fordham Law School, Gill served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Virginia where he prosecuted and defended general courts marshal. He was then appointed assistant district attorney of New York County by District Attorney Frank S. Hogan and has worked in many areas of public life. Gill serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Group Health Inc. As chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, Gill was a participant in the effort to rebuild Lower Manhattan after the September 11th attacks.

A well-known public speaker and author of two books, Gill remains connected to his Irish roots and gave a speech at the opening of the Irish Hunger Memorial at Battery Park City in 2002. He has traveled to Ireland and traces his roots on his father’s side to Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare.

Marty Glennon is a partner in the Long Island, New York law firm of Archer, Byington, Glennon and Levine where he practices labor, employee benefits and employment law. He began his career as a third-generation member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and remains a card-carrying union member. He attended the City University of New York School of Law through a scholarship and assistance from the union’s Education and Cultural Fund.

While in law school, Glennon helped establish the Joe Doherty Civil Rights Fellowship with Sean Crowley, providing scholarships for CUNY law students interested in civil rights issues. (Doherty, a former member of the IRA, was a political prisoner in both Ireland and the U.S.) Glennon is also a founding member and immediate past president of the Brehon Law Society for Nassau County and a member of the Brehon Council. He has visited Ireland a number of times and has played the bagpipes in the Dublin Millennium Parade.

Glennon’s family maintains a farm in Shangarry, Gurtymadden, County Galway. He is married to Jennifer with two daughters, Caroline and Isabelle.

John P. Goodrich is a partner and vice president at the law firm of Goodrich and Goodrich, P.C. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Goodrich went into private practice following his graduation from law school and merged practices with his brother, Bill, in 1993. Goodrich was one of the first criminal defense lawyers in Allegheny County to try a case involving DNA evidence. In recent years, he has concentrated his practice in personal injury and product liability cases.

Goodrich received his undergraduate degree from St. Francis University and his law degree from Duquesne University School of Law. He was named Irishman of the Year in 2006 by Pittsburgh Iron City and was on the national Super Lawyer list in 2006 and 2007.

Married with one child, Goodrich is a second-generation Irish-American whose father’s family hails from Galway. His mother's family is from Mayo and Galway. He is a member of a number of Irish organizations, including the A.O.H. Irish Society for Education and Charity and the Irish American Unity Conference.

Terence Hallinan is an attorney at law in his private practice in San Francisco. For eight years he served as the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. During his time as D.A., Hallinan was know for his hands-on involvement in the courtroom, his opposition to capital punishment and for the significant progress the District Attorney’s office made in the fight against violent crime under his leadership. Prior to his time as D.A., Hallinan worked as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During his seven-year tenure he was chair of the Government Efficiency and Labor Committee, vice chair of the Health, Public Safety and Environmental Committee and a member of the Finance Committee.

Hallinan graduated with a B.A. in History from UC Berkeley, where he narrowly missed becoming a member of the 1960 Olympic boxing team. He went on to attend law school at Hastings College of Law.

A second-generation Irishman, Hallinan traces his ancestry to County Cork on his mother’s side and County Limerick on his father’s. He is a member of the Irish American Democratic Club and is married with five children.

John D. Hanify is the co-founder of Hanify & King, Professional Corporation. For 25 years, he has tried cases and represented business clients in state and federal courts, before federal and state agencies, and in arbitration.

Hanify received his A.B. from Harvard Law and his J.D. from Boston College Law School, and served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

A third-generation Irish-American whose family is from County Galway, Hanify is a trustee of the Boston Bar Foundation, and an Overseer of Boston College Law School.

He has been named, for consecutive years, to the Best Lawyers in America list, while his litigation experience has earned him a Massachusetts Super Lawyer distinction. He is a recipient of the Justice Department’s Outstanding Performance Award, and in 2006 was named Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, Boston College Law School.

Phillip J. Hanrahan joined the Milwaukee law firm of Foley & Lardner upon his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1966. The firm has grown from 62 lawyers and one office when Hanrahan joined to almost 1,000 lawyers and 21 offices worldwide. He served as a partner at Foley & Lardner from 1973 until his retirement in 2007. He had a particularly active practice in corporate law, with an emphasis on securities and mergers and acquisitions, serving as legal counsel to large publicly held companies as well as closely held and family businesses. He is a member of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin and American Bar Associations.

Boston born, Hanrahan is involved in various charitable activities, including acting as an officer, director and legal counsel to two Milwaukee-based Irish charitable organizations. Every August for the past 25 years, he and wife Mary June (one of ten O’Neil sisters from Boston) have hosted numerous Irish musicians and other performers at their home during Milwaukee's Irish Fest, resulting in many strong friendships. They have four sons, and have owned a home in Ballyvaughan, County Clare since 1998.

Kevin Hanratty was appointed by Governor George Pataki to serve as a counsel in the New York State Office of Homeland Security, where his responsibilities included drafting and reviewing legislation and regulations and helping to shape New York’s homeland security policy. Previously he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the City of New York. He has served as a state committeeman and district leader for Queens’ Republican Party and ran for state senate in 1996. Since April 2008 he has been working at Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Contract Services as a counsel.

Hanratty, a graduate of Fordham Law School, received undergraduate degrees from both Queens College and Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. He served as president of the Irish-American Republicans group and is a member of the W.B. Yeats Society of New York.

A first-generation Irish-American, Hanratty lived in Ireland with his family for several years when he was a child. His father hails from County Louth and his mother from County Clare. Hanratty grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, and currently resides in Woodside, Queens.

Mark P. Harty is the Managing Partner of Morrison Mahoney LLP, where his expertise is focused on handling employment cases in public agencies and the state and federal courts, civil litigation, and malpractice claims.

A graduate of Dartmouth College (B.A., magna cum laude) and Georgetown University Law School (J.D.), Harty was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the United States District Court of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. In 1999, he received the Dartmouth Alumni Award for distinguished service.

Harty, who grew up in Buffalo, New York, traces his ancestors on his father William’s side to County Limerick. He is on the board of the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association, has served as a trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston as well as the board of the Greater Boston Legal Services, and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys, and the Federation of Insurance and Corporate Counsel. He is also a life member of the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Foundations.

Joe Hassett serves as counsel to the Washington-based law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP, where he was a partner from 1970 through 2007. He has tried jury and non-jury cases involving a wide variety of public and private issues, and has argued in appellate courts all over the country and in the United States Supreme Court.

A graduate of Canisius College (B.A., summa cum laude), Harvard University (LL.B., cum laude), and University College, Dublin (M.A., Ph. D.), Hassett is engaged in a trial and appellate practice focused on corporate and securities matters.

A proud Irish-American whose great-grandparents emigrated from counties Clare and Cork, Hassett serves as counsel to the Embassy of Ireland. He has published a book on W.B. Yeats, and has lectured on Yeats and other Irish writers at such venues as the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, the James Joyce Summer School in Dublin, the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco, and Oxford University.

Hassett and his wife Carol live in Washington, D.C.

Their two children, Matthew and Meredith, are students at Brown and Tufts Universities, respectively.

Patrick Esmond Hobbs became the Dean of Seton Hall University's School of Law in 1999, after teaching at the school for nine years and following a career in private practice. As dean, Hobbs has helped to establish the law school as one that consistently ranks among the best nationwide. Under his leadership, the school launched the “Seton Hall Law Rising” campaign, which aims to enhance its scholarship programs and improve technology and educational facilities for an urban student population.

Hobbs received a B.S. in accounting from Seton Hall University, a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Laws in taxation from New York University. Among the many honors Hobbs has received are the Seton Hall Faculty Excellence Award and the Student Bar Association Professor of the Year award.

A member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Hobbs is a first-generation Irish-American. His father’s family hails from County Louth and his mother's clan is from County Meath. He is married to JoAnne and has three children: Patrick, John and Alexandra.

Kenneth J. Horoho is a partner in the Pittsburgh law firm of Goldberg, Gruener, Gentile, Horoho and Avalli PC. He formerly worked as an associate at Raphael, Gruener & Raphael, where he was made partner in 1987.

He has a long history in the area of child custody law and served as president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 2006-2007, where he was chair of the Young Lawyers Division and the vice-chair of the Children’s Rights Committee.

Horoho received his B.A. in accounting from St. Francis University, from which he also received the Outstanding Pittsburgh Alumnus Award, and his law degree the Duquesne University School of Law. He was named an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2005, where he now teaches a course on advanced family law trial advocacy. He also assisted in the development of an educational video that explains the custody process for families in the process of divorce.

A second-generation Irish-American whose father’s family hails from Galway, Horoho lives in Pittsburgh, with his wife and son, Sean.

Colleen Ann Hyland is an Associate Judge of the Chicago Circuit Court. She received her B.A. from John Carroll University. A graduate of DePaul Law School, Colleen spent her early career as an assistant for the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office, and made a name for herself as an assistant prosecutor in the sexual misconduct case against Congressman Mel Reynolds. She went on to serve as a judge in the Chicago criminal courts where she heard several high-profile gang cases. She was recently relocated to the District 5 Municipal Courts.

Hyland grew up in Evergreen Park, a predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhood in the south suburbs of Chicago. Her father, John Hyland, was the president of Evergreen Savings and Loan and the son of Irish immigrants from Castlebar, County Mayo. Her mother Mary’s grandparents came from Tipperary.

Hyland is an Alumni Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and teaches trial advocacy at Depaul Law School. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, John, and their daughter, Maggie.

Hugh Keefe, a Managing Partner at the Connecticut law firm Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante PC, was the first U.S. lawyer to be board-certified in both civil and criminal trial advocacy. He has taught trial advocacy at the Yale Law School since 1978, is an Associate Fellow of Saybrook College, and continues to try both civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts.

Keefe, who graduated from Quinnipiac University and the University of Connecticut Law School, has consistently been listed as one of the best lawyers in America in various publications. He has been honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from both the University of Connecticut Law School and Quinnipiac University, and he and his three sons carry the Quinnipiac University banner at the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade each year.

Both of Keefe's parents were born in County Kerry, his mother in Kenmare and his father on Castleisland. He is a member of the Gaelic Club in East Haven, Connecticut, and his firm sponsors “Sounds of Ireland,” a weekly radio show that airs in the New Haven area.

Kevin M. Kearney is a partner in the Brooklyn law firm of Wingate, Kearney & Cullen, which for over 100 years has represented religious and not-for-profit organizations.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Kearney is a director of Mutual of America Investment Corporation and serves as chairman of its Audit Committee. He is also a director of Concern Worldwide U.S, and has traveled extensively with Concern to the neediest countries.

Kearney, who holds degrees in philosophy from Manhattan College, and a Doctor of Law from St. John’s University School of Law, has lectured at Fordham University Center for Non Public Education. He has served on the New York State Interfaith Commission on Landmarking of Religious Properties and the New York State Council of Catholic Bishops Legal Advisory Commission.

An avid runner who has completed 12 marathons, Kearney resides in Belle Harbor, New York with his wife, Mary Beth, a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Pediatric Cardiology at Schneider’s Children’s Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York, and their children, Christine, Elisa and Sean.

Paul M. Kane, a partner in the Boston law firm of McGrath & Kane, specializes in Family Law. He is a former Assistant Dean of Boston College Law School and has been a Family Law lecturer at Boston College since 1970. He has lectured on numerous aspects of Family Law practice for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Flaschner Institute, the Massachusetts Inns of Court and Suffolk University Law School’s Advanced Legal Studies program.

Kane is a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1989. He is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School, and currently serves as a member of the Board of Overseers at the school.

Kane, who served in the United States Navy from 1964-1967, is also an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School. He is first-generation Irish-American whose mother is from County Cork and whose father is from the Aran Islands.

At the age of 34, Don Keenan was the youngest lawyer ever inducted into the Inner Circle of Advocates, and has received numerous honors, including the Chief Justice Award for Civility and Professionalism (the highest honor possible for a lawyer in Georgia). He was also named one of the best medical negligence lawyers in the United States by the National Law Journal.

In 1993, Keenan formed the Keenan’s Kids Foundation to help children at risk in the legal system. He is also the driving force behind fundraising efforts to provide a new home for the Murphy family of Atlanta, who have adopted 23 children with special needs.

Raised in Morehead City, North Carolina, Keenan knew from an early age that good things do not come easily to all. He was raised by his grandfather, who told him stories of his Irish ancestors and the “No Irish Need Apply” signs they encountered.

Today, Keenan is the driving force behind Irish America magazine’s annual “Stars of the South” gala in Atlanta, which honors Irish-Americans from the Southern U.S.

Anastasia D. Kelly is the American International Group’s (AIG) executive vice president, general counsel, and senior regulatory and compliance officer. She supervises 550 and lawyers around the world. Between 2003 and 2006, Kelly served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of MCI during its bankruptcy proceedings. She also worked for Sears, Roebuck and Co., and Fannie Mae.

Kelly received her B.A. from Trinity College, Washington, and her J.D. from George Washington University Law Center. She has been involved with a significant amount of non-profit and committee work throughout her career. She was born and raised in Boston, the daughter of an Irish Catholic policeman who “instilled in her the love of the law and maybe a bit of the Blarney, too,” and was encouraged by both parents to get the highest level of education possible.

Her family on her father’s side is from County Meath, where her cousins still live, and her mother’s side hails from County Cork. She and her husband Tom are the very proud parents of twin boys, who just graduated from high school and are off to college (UVA and Davidson).

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California, on July 23, 1936, the second of his parents’ three children. His father was a well-established attorney and lobbyist and his mother, Gladys McLeod, was involved in civic activities.

An honor student in high school, Kennedy went on to Stanford University. He also spent a year at the London School of Economics. After Stanford, he enrolled in Harvard Law School and graduated cum laude.Kennedy returned to California after law school and practiced in San Francisco. When his father died in 1963, he returned to Sacramento to take over his practice. During this time he befriended Ed Meese. In 1973, Meese, who was working for California governor Ronald Reagan, recruited Kennedy to help draft a plan to limit the state’s spending. Reagan recommended Kennedy for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and in 1975 Kennedy became the youngest federal judge of the day. He was appointed to the Supreme Court, the third Catholic to serve on the nation’s highest bench, by President Reagan, and assumed that office on February 18, 1988.

Kennedy is married to Mary Davis and the couple has three children.

Edmund Lynch serves as a senior litigation attorney at the New Jersey law firm of Lynch and Lynch, where he has worked since 1974. His professional activities are various, ranging from serving as a judge in college and high school mock trials to serving needy defendants as a pro bono attorney.

Lynch received his bachelor’s degree from St. Francis College in 1963 and his law degree from Georgetown University in 1968. Lynch returned to Georgetown in 2005 to moderate a forum on the Irish peace process. He also moderated Syracuse Law School’s forum of the same name and has spoken elsewhere on human rights in Northern Ireland.

Lynch is a second-generation Irish-American whose mother's family hailed from Belfast and his father's family from County Cork. He is married and has three children and a granddaughter. Lynch is active in the Irish community and has received recognition from the Voice of the Innocent Human Rights Project in Belfast and the Peace and Justice Award from Irish Organizations United.

Judge James Murray Lynn is a member of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania. Previously, he was a prosecutor and trial lawyer.

He graduated from Loyola University Law School in New Orleans, where he earned the highest average in constitutional law and criminal law and procedure, and was a member of the Loyola Law Review. He returned to New Orleans to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and also assisted in the 9/11 rescue efforts, saying he was inspired by his mother, a nurse who served police and firefighters in Philadelphia.

Lynn, whose ancestors hail from various areas of Ireland including Louth, Down, Donegal and Sligo, has served as president of Philadelphia’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade and is its long-time announcer. He was president and a founding member of the Brehon Law Society, and was invited by President Clinton to serve as a delegate to the White House Conference for Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties. Judge Lynn is married to Barbara. His 19-year-old daughter, Grainne, is a student at The Catholic University of America.

Thomas Mahoney, Jr., is a partner in the Savannah law firm Ranitz, Mahoney & Mahoney PC, which focuses on criminal and trial law. Mahoney has been involved with general law practice since 1962. He previously served as a Special Agent for the FBI, earned his B.A. from the University of South Carolina and received his J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law.

In 1995, Mahoney was elected Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savannah, and has served as the past president of both the Irish Heritage and the Sinn Féin Societies of Savannah, the latter of which has no affiliation with Northern Ireland.

A fourth-generation Irish-American who traces his roots to County Cork, Mahoney has traveled to Ireland four times since 2004. He enjoys the sounds of local Savannah musician Harry O’Donoghue, as well as the writings of Frank McCourt, and lives with his wife,

Judy, in Savannah. They are proud parents to four children and grandparents to three.

Seamus McCaffrey is a Justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. McCaffrey became a municipal judge in 1993 and in 2001 was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as the Administrative Judge of the Municipal Court. He was elected to the Supreme Court in 2003.

Unlike most in his field, McCaffrey did not earn his law degree until he was almost forty, when he graduated with a J.D. from Temple University School of Law. Born in Belfast, he joined the Marine Corps after graduating Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia, and later transferred to the Marine Air Force Reserve, where he rose to the rank of Colonel.

McCaffrey, who served on the Philadelphia Police Department Homicide Unit for 20 years, has a reputation that is synonymous with his innovative National Football League Court (he created the ad hoc Nuisance Night Court program in 1998 to deal with rowdy fans at the Philadelphia Eagles home games). He was named “Philadelphia’s Quality of Life Judge” by the city’s largest newspaper. He is married to Lise Rapaport, and they have three sons.

Denis J. McInerney is a former federal prosecutor who concentrates in white collar criminal defense work at Davis Polk & Wardwell where he has been a partner since 1997. He was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers at Iona Grammar School and Iona Prep and received his B.A. from Columbia College and his J.D. from Fordham Law School. He currently serves on the Board of Sanctuary for Families and is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics.

Denis’ maternal grandfather was Francis T. Murphy, a lawyer and former President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, whose Irish ancestors came to this country in 1847 and fought in the Civil War. Denis’ paternal grandparents were both born in Clare and came to this country as teenagers. Although they had lived only a few miles apart in Ireland, they first met each other in the Bronx at the Clare Ball. Through several trips to Ireland, Denis’ father instilled in all of his children a love for their heritage which has resulted in their being in regular contact with their aunts, uncles and cousins from O’Callaghan’s Mills, Loch Graney and Dublin.

Rob McKenna is Washington’s 17th Attorney General. As the state’s chief legal officer, he directs 500 attorneys and over 700 professional staff providing legal services to state agencies, boards and commissions.

McKenna, whose great-grandfather immigrated from Buncrana, County Donegal in the late 1860s, received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1988, where he was a member of the Law Review. He earned a B.A. in economics and a B.A. in international studies, both with honors, from the University of Washington. A committed community leader, he has raised funds for Seattle’s Eastside Domestic Violence Program and the Bellevue Schools Foundation. A former Eagle Scout, he also serves as a board member with the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts of America, is on the board of the Bellevue Community College Foundation and is a longtime member of the Bellevue Rotary, as well as serving as a fundraising chair of the Eastside Domestic Violence Program.

McKenna and his wife of 20 years, Marilyn, have four children.

Judge Joseph M. McLaughlin was appointed United States Circuit Judge on October 17, 1990 and entered on duty the next day. He received his LL.B. from Fordham Law School, and his LLM from New York University Law School, and served in the United States Army from 1955-57.

Judge McLaughlin served as dean of Fordham Law School from 1971 to 1981, and was chairman of the New York State Law Revision Commission from 1975 to 1982. He was a United States District Judge from the Eastern District of New York from 1981 to 1990, and also an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s Law School from 1982 to 1997.

A first-generation Irish-American whose father’s and mother’s families both hail from County Longford, Judge McLaughlin is married to the former Frances Lynch and has four children, Mary Jo, Joseph, Matthew and Andrew.

Only three people have given the address at the annual Friendly Sons of St. Patrick New York dinner more than once: William Hughes Mulligan, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Judge Joseph M. McLaughlin.

Paul J. McNamara, partner at Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP, is a member of the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is a 1965 graduate of Boston College Law School and received its 1989 Alumnus of the Year Award. McNamara specializes in property and estate planning. He also represents individuals in estate planning, probate administration, and tax and succession planning. He serves on the Board of Overseers of Boston College Law School and the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Irish Immigration Center.

McNamara’s paternal grandmother, Mary Swift McNamara, came from Williamstown, Co. Galway in the late 1800s and married Bernard F. McNamara of Boston. His mother’s family, the Cassidys, immigrated in the 1800s from Dublin. McNamara is married to Mary Hallisey who traces her roots to Tubercurry, Co. Sligo. They have two sons, Paul Joseph McNamara, Jr. and Bernard Swift McNamara, and three grandchildren, Nina, Alice, and Callum.

John P. McNicholas III is a senior partner at the Los Angeles law firm of McNicholas and McNicholas. Recent court victories included a $5.4 million settlement on behalf of the Isley Brothers against Sony Music and singer Michael Bolton. He also won a $1.67 million settlement for a single mother who sustained serious injury from an over-the-counter dietary supplement.

McNicholas received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and his law degree from Loyola Law School. He received Loyola’s Board of Governors Award in 2000 and has served on the advisory board to UCLA’s Catholic Center since 2000.

McNicholas is a third-generation Irish-American whose father’s family hails from County Mayo and whose mother, Rosemary’s, from Cork. He is a member of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick’s Executive Board and the Irish American Bar Association, which awarded him the Daniel O’Connell Award in 2005. McNicholas is married and has seven children.

John J. Meehan is a retired District Attorney in California’s Alameda County.

He began working in the state District Attorney’s office in 1960, having graduated from the University of San Francisco, School of Law. He had been inspired by his father who was a police captain, active in the predominantly Irish community of Eureka Valley near San Francisco, to pursue a career in prosecution.

Meehan, who was named the St. Thomas More Lawyer of the Year in 2003, also has a talent for the written word, starting a publication called Point Of View, which reviewed cases from the United States Supreme Court and the California courts. He continues to write a column for a statewide legal publication called Did You Know.

Meehan’s paternal grandparents hailed from County Leitrim and his mother’s family was from County Cork. He and his wife, who is part Irish-American, had four children, three living, and spent their thirtieth wedding anniversary in Ireland.

Former senator George J. Mitchell has a name that is synonymous with the Northern Irish peace process, having chaired the talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement. A partner in the New York City law firm DLA Piper, Mitchell served as a U.S. senator from Maine for fifteen years and was voted the “most respected member” for six consecutive years. He served as Senate Majority Leader and was instrumental in the reauthorization of the Clean Air Act and Americans with Disabilities Act. He served as Chairman of the International Commission on Disarmament in Northern Ireland, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Mitchell also served as Chairman of the International Crisis Group, and has been appointed Chancellor of the Queen’s University in Northern Ireland. He recently headed an investigation into past steroid use in major league baseball.

A Maine native, Mitchell received his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a second-generation Irish-American.

Patrick Meehan, who until recently served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, first began his public service work in 1995 when appointed District Attorney of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. As U.S. Attorney, Patrick pioneered the Anti-Terrorism Task Force, which has since been touted as a national model for the prevention of future terrorist attacks. His most recent accomplishment, the “Route 222 Corridor Anti-Gang Initiative,” brings together faith-based and community efforts with local, state and federal law enforcement to establish safer neighborhood conditions across five cities and four counties in Pennsylvania.

On July 21, 2008, Meehan joined Conrad O’Brien Gellman & Rohn, P.C. where his focus will be on representing multi-national corporations and individuals and a wide range of corporate commercial litigation.

Meehan graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine and earned his J.D. from Temple University. A Philadelphia native, he is a third-generation Irish-American with roots in County Mayo and enjoys the sounds of the contemporary Irish band the Corrs. He is married with three children.

As Partner and Co-head of Corporate Restructuring at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP, Greg Milmoe plays a leadership role in the Los Angeles firm’s numerous restructurings, acquisitions and financings. His career with Skadden began before he even graduated law school, as a mailroom assistant in 1971.

A graduate of Fordham University Law School, Milmoe received his A.B. from Cornell University. As a corporate lawyer, Milmoe has received accolades for his ability to fashion pragmatic solutions to complex problems from differing legal disciplines. In 2007, The American Lawyer awarded Milmoe its Dealmaker of the Year award, and he has also been named to Turnarounds and Workouts’s list of the top dozen restructuring lawyers in America.

Milmoe’s achievements aren’t limited to law: in 2006 he was honored by the Partnership for Afterschool Education as its Afterschool Champion, and in 2008 he helped win the Lawyer’s Cup for Skadden’s ice hockey team.

Milmoe’s father’s family hail from Sligo, while his mother’s come from Galway. He is married with two children.

Justice Donald Molloy worked in private practice, where he focused on civil litigation, before he was appointed U.S. District Judge for the District of Montana, Missoula Division in 1996. With jurisdiction over a vast amount of federal land, including ten national forests, Molloy has been colored as “one of the greenest judges in the West” by High Country News, a magazine dedicated to reporting environmental news in the West.

Judge Molloy graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Montana, and received his J.D. from the university’s Law School after serving five years active duty in the U.S. Navy. His Irish ancestors emigrated from Counties Offaly and Cork to Montana. Of his sense of Irish connection in America, Donald says, “Being Irish is being part of a very large clan that tends to take care of its members socially, spiritually and in their essence.” Judge Molloy instituted an internship program under which law students at University College Cork have the opportunity to attend the University of Montana.

He has been married to Judith for 37 years and they have five children.

A lawyer at Lewis, Owens and Mulherin, a firm concentrating on personal injury cases, Joseph Mulherin previously practiced law at Bouhan, Williams and Levy for sixteen years, where he focused on civil litigation. A member of the Savannah and American Bar Associations and the American Association for Justice, Mulherin focuses on automobile collision, medical misconduct and workplace injury cases.

Mulherin graduated from the University of Georgia and went on to earn his J.D. from the university’s Law School. A fourth-generation Irish-American with roots in County Mayo, he believes that being Irish means “sharing a sense of pride with others in the many accomplishments of the Irish and enjoying a camaraderie with other Irish people resulting from the many hardships our people have overcome.”

An active participant in the Ancient Order of Hibernians’s annual Irish road bowling competition, Mulherin enjoys the tunes of both the Clancy Brothers and The Chieftains. He lives in Georgia and is married with a son and a daughter.

Kenneth P. Nolan, managing partner of the New York office of Speiser, Krause, Nolan & Granito, specializes in aviation personal injury and wrongful death litigation and trials. He has successfully obtained million-dollar verdicts and settlements in the Avianca crash on September 20, 1989 and the TWA Flight 800 explosion of July 17, 1996, as well as many others.

Nolan has served as an editor for The New York Times and has written articles for The Times and other publications. He is a past member of the Board of Editors of The New York State Bar Journal and has been president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild.

A past president of the Emerald Association of Long Island and a past member of the Board of Trustees of Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School, Nolan has been honored by the Holy Name Foundation, which raises funds to support Nolan’s former grammar school.

Nolan’s family is from Tipperary and Limerick. He and his wife Nancy have four children and live in Brooklyn and Shelter Island, New York.

Thomas J. Nolan is a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP and the co-chair of Skadden’s West Coast litigation practice. He has extensive experience representing corporations and individuals in civil and criminal litigation. A former federal prosecutor, he served as chief of fraud and prosecutions in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s office.

Nolan is consistently recognized for his work by California’s Daily Journal and Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, and was selected by The Best Lawyers in America for its 2008 edition. In addition to his extensive white-collar defense practice, Nolan has represented clients in complex civil litigation matters and has obtained verdicts of over one billion dollars for his clients over the past six years. Nolan is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers

Nolan received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Loyola University. His mother's family hails from County Mayo. He is married and lives in California.

Donal O’Brien is a partner at the Chicago law firm of Bryan Cave LLP, where he focuses his practice on corporate law including mergers and acquisitions, commercial finance and general securities. He represented American Tower in its $800 million acquisition of ALLTELL cell phone towers, and other recent clients include Barrilla Foods, Irish Dairy Board and United Shockwave. In the area of finance, O’Brien has advised financial institutions in numerous secured and unsecured lending transactions. He also represents foreign investments to and from Ireland.

O’Brien graduated from University College Dublin with honors in history and received his law degree from Chicago's Loyola University, where he has taught a course in Documenting and Negotiating Finance Transactions. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Judicial Evaluation Committee, a director of the Illinois Chapter of the American Liver Foundation and the founder, director and president of the Ireland Network, North America’s largest Irish professional network in North America. He emigrated from Dublin in the 1990s.

Mary Ellen O’Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law at the Notre Dame Law School, where she teaches international law courses. She began her teaching career at the Indiana University Law School, following a career in private practice in Washington, D.C. She has also taught at Ohio State University and for the U.S. Department of Defense at the Center for Security Studies in Germany. She was appointed by the International Law Association in 2005 to chair a four-year study on the meaning of war in international law.

O’Connell received her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and an LL.B. from Cambridge University.

She is a third-generation Irish-American; her father’s family hails from County Kerry. She has written seven books and about 70 articles, some appearing in major publications such as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. O’Connell is married.

Brian O’Dwyer is a senior partner in the New York litigation firm of O’Dwyer and Bernstien and has been cited as winning the highest personal injury award – $61 million – in the United States. He has served as Counsel to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the New York District Council of Carpenters and other unions. He is a regular commentator on legal issues for Fox TV and CNBC. His efforts on behalf of Puerto Rico brought him the honor of serving as Grand Marshal of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in 1993.

A recipient of the New York City Council Spirit of New York award for his work to bring together New York’s many cultures, O’Dwyer received papal honors in 2000 when he was named a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. O’Dwyer received his undergraduate degree from George Washington University, his masters in Spanish in Madrid and his Juris Doctor law degree from Georgetown University. He returned to George Washington to receive his Masters in Law.

He is the son of County Mayo native Paul O'Dwyer, a famed lawyer and politician who co-founded the firm of O’Dwyer and Bernstien.

Michael O’Leary is a partner in the Houston law firm Andrews Kurth LLP. His practice is involved in all aspects of corporate transactions, including representation of public and private companies and investment banking firms. O’Leary also counsels on a wide range of strategic transactional matters, including international joint ventures and alliances, publicly traded limited partnerships, spin-offs, mergers, acquisitions and dispositions (by tender offer, exchange offer and otherwise) of corporations, divisions of corporations and other entities. He has particular experience with energy and oilfield service companies, pipeline transportation, staff leasings, royalty trusts, and forest products companies.

O’Leary graduated with a B.S. in Finance from the University of Alabama and earned an honors J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center. He has been published in Financier Worldwide and is a member of the Houston Bar Association and the State Bar of Texas. In 2006 he was included as one of Chambers USA Leading Business Lawyers and featured in Texas Monthly as a Texas Super Lawyer in Securities and Corporate Finance from 2003-2007. Married with three children, he has roots in County Cork.

James A. O’Malley is a native of Limerick City and a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway and New York Law School. He is the senior partner in the law firm of O’Malley & Associates, a boutique law firm in New York City which handles all aspects of U.S. Immigration law. The firm’s areas of specialization include executive and managerial transferee visas, investment visas, permanent residence and United States citizenship. He is also the co-editor of Everything Irish, a comprehensive one volume popular reference book on Ireland published by Ballantine Books in the U.S. in 2003, and by Mercier Press in Ireland in 2005. O’Malley is pictured above with members of the U.S. Munster Rugby Supporters Club of which he is a co-founder and the current president.

John O’Malley is a shareholder in the law firm of Volpe and Koenig P.C. in Philadelphia where his practice is focused on litigation and trademark matters. He is a member of the bar in Pennsylvania and was admitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

O’Malley graduated cum laude from George Washington University and received his law degree from Villanova University.

He is first-generation Irish-American whose mother’s family hails from Termon, County Donegal and his father’s from Louisburgh, County Mayo. He has been vice president of the Brehon Law Society since 2006. He is also a board member of the Irish American Business Chamber Network and a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He has served as a board member of Family and Community Services of Delaware County since 2001.

O’Malley is married with two children.

A strong advocate for legal justice for children, Patricia O’Neill has practiced law for over fifteen years in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and has represented numerous cases involving children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. After graduating from Chestnut Hill College, Patricia taught for ten years before working as a visiting nurse for nine years. She attended Widener School of Law in Wilmington, where she graduated cum laude.

Patricia’s grandmother, who emigrated from Ireland at the age of three, spent the next ninety years of her life in America fostering a strong sense of Irish appreciation in the lives of her children. A second-generation Irish-American, Patricia says that “being Irish manifests itself through my efforts to fight for justice. Not only do I firmly believe that Ireland stood and cried for justice, but I learned it from my very Irish dad.” O’Neill lives in Delaware with her husband and four daughters.

John Phelan has been practicing law in New York and Connecticut for the last 15 years. A trial attorney by trade, he has tried cases in all of the Supreme Courts in New York.

Phelan has been living his dream of having his own practice and giving back to the Irish community since 2001 when he opened his office on McLean Avenue in Yonkers. The practice is primarily devoted to real estate, particularly first time buyers. “Each time we help an Irish or Irish-American couple close on their first house in the Bronx or in Yonkers or anywhere in New York City, we take pride in helping their dream come true,” says Phelan.

Both of Phelan’s parents emigrated from Waterford in the early 1950s and he grew up surrounded by Irish culture. At age five, he started playing Gaelic football and eventually traveled to Ireland to play in the Minor Championship. Phelan played football for 30 years and now his three children, Sean, Claire and Leah, have embraced the sport.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Samantha Power was the founding executive director of the Care Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where she is now a professor.

Straight out of college, Power spent three years covering the war in Bosnia as a reporter and remains a working journalist, with her work appearing in various publications including The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. She won the Pulitzer in 2003 for general nonfiction for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, and spent a year working in the office of presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama. Power is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

She was born in Dublin and moved to the United States when she was nine. She married Cass Sunstein on July 4 of this year.

William Quinlan is a managing partner at the Chicago law firm Quinlan and Carroll. His practice is primarily focused on business law. Quinlan previously served as a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court and is a former Circuit Court Judge in Cook County.

Quinlan, who received the Distinguished Award for Excellence from the Illinois Bar Foundation and was inducted as a laureate by the Illinois State Bar Association Academy of Illinois Lawyers, graduated from Loyola University and received his J.D. from Loyola and his LLM from the University of Virginia. He is married with six children. A second-generation Irish-American, Quinlan’s father’s family hails from Cork and his mother’s from Galway. He is a member of the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago, the Celtic Legal Society of Chicago and the Irish American Partnership for Excellence.

Jack Quinn is the co-founder and chairman of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a strategic consulting company he formed in Washington, D.C. in January 2000 with Ed Gillespie.

Quinn served as counsel to President Clinton from November 1995 to February 1997. Prior to that, he was Vice President Gore’s Chief-of-Staff and Counselor. Before his government service, Quinn was an Adjunct Professor of Law at his alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, where as a student he edited the Georgetown Law Journal. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served on a number of boards, including Fannie Mae, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Center City Consortium.

Quinn’s great-grandfather came from County Clare.

Paul S. Quinn works for Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney PC in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in federal government relations. Prior to joining Buchanan, Quinn provided policy and strategic advice to many senators, including Ted Kennedy, and served as a lieutenant in the United States Army from 1956-1958. He was the 2005 recipient of the Irish Peace and Culture Award from The American Ireland Fund, where he sits on the Board of Directors. He also founded the AIF’s annual gala fundraiser in Washington.

Quinn chairs the American Advisory Board of the Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin. A Rhode Island native, he attended Providence College and received his law degree from Georgetown University.

All four of Quinn’s grandparents hailed from Ireland, and he enjoys dual citizenship. His paternal grandfather was from Coalisland in County Tyrone, and his maternal grandmother was from Belfast. On his mother’s side his grandfather was born in Waterford and his grandmother in Drumlish in County Longford. Quinn has been married to his wife, Denise, for 50 years. They have two children and two grandchildren.

Tom Reynolds III is a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Illinois and a veteran of more than twenty jury trials. Along with another partner at the Chicago law firm Winston & Strawn, Reynolds holds the distinction of having secured the highest jury award ever collected in the Seventh Circuit of the United States.

Reynolds’ clients have included American Appraisal Associates, Baxter International, Carbon County Coal Company, FMC, Jefferson Smurfit Corporation, Gannet Co., Gould Inc., Multimedia Co., Northern Trust Company, Philip Morris, Salomon Brothers, United Airlines, VMS Realty and Wirtz Corporation. Reynolds is a member of the Boards of Directors of Georgetown University and Smurfit Stone Container Corporation, and is a recent past president of the Better Government Association in?Chicago. Reynolds is president of the Brain Research Foundation.

He received a B.S. in business administration from Georgetown University in 1974 and a J.D. from Emory University in 1977.

Reynolds is a third-generation Irish-American.

Robert J. Reilly is the Assistant Dean for the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham University School of Law. After a career in corporate law at Transamerica Corporation, he returned to Fordham, where he had received both his undergraduate and law degrees. He has been involved in the administration of the school for over 25 years. For three seasons he served as the host of the cable television program Ask the Lawyer.

A former president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York, Reilly was a contributing author to The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, Reilly is also a member of the New York Irish History Roundtable and the American Irish Historical Society. He was involved in organizing the Fordham Law School Northern Ireland Mediation program. A fifth-generation Irish-American, he is married to the former Mary Jane Conlon and has three sons, John, Benedict and Michael.

Sean Patrick Riordan is an associate at Brecher Fishman Pasternack Heller Walsh & Tinker, a firm committed to personal injury lawsuits. After graduating with a B.A. in political science from Molloy College, Sean received his law degree in 2004 from St. John’s University School of Law.

Riordan converges his Irish roots with his legal career with memberships in the Nassau County Brehon Law Society and The American Ireland Fund Young Leaders group. Of how his Irish roots affect his current law practices, Riordan says, “Being Irish provides me with the knowledge of what injustice looks like, and the strength to help fight against it today.” He serves on the Board of Directors for the Feel Good Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to education and relief of health and financial burdens on the first responders to the 9/11 attacks.

He lives in New York with his wife, Elizabeth, and two young children who, Sean hopes, will value their Irish heritage “when they are old enough to appreciate anything other than Mickey Mouse!” A second-generation Irish-American, Sean has roots in counties Armagh, Roscommon, Cork and Mayo.

Fred Rooney is the director of the Community Legal Resource Network at City University of New York Law School, which supports a network of solo and small-firm attorneys in community-based practices in their efforts to increase access to civil justice in the New York City area. He is also a partner in the small Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based law firm of Rooney and Mannicci LLC, and is committed to practicing pro bono law that focuses on international child abductions and lifesaving healthcare for children of needy parents.

A graduate of CUNY’s first law class in 1986, he received his master’s in bicultural and bilingual studies from Marywood College and his bachelor’s in Latin American Studies from Moravian College, both in Pennsylvania. He was awarded Moravian College’s Haupert Humanitarian Award in 2002. He remains a supporter of CUNY’s Joseph Doherty Fellowship, which provides financial assistance to CUNY law students who have demonstrated a commitment to civil rights or activism on behalf of Irish causes.

Rooney has two children and traces his roots to County Cork.

Kevin Ryan is the Criminal Justice Director for the City of San Francisco. ?He is also Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Gavin Newsom, and a senior advisor on criminal justice issues. Prior to joining the Mayors’ staff, ?Ryan was a partner in a major Ca. Law firm. Before that he was the 48th U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. Ryan’s four and a half years as Northern California’s top federal prosecutor will be remembered for his efforts to rid sports of performance-enhancement drugs. His handling of the BALCO steroids case permeated all levels of professional sports. Major league baseball has twice changed its testing policy for steroids and controlled substances since the case. Ryan attended Saint Ignatius High School before earning his Bachelor of Arts History from Dartmouth College and JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He was named one of the Top 100 California Lawyers of 2006 by the San Francisco Daily Journal, and voted a N. California "Superlawyer" for 2006 and 2007. Ryan’s father was born in Dublin and his mother in Longford. They immigrated first to Canada where Ryan was born, and then to San Francisco. He is married with two sons.

A career prosecutor, Bill Ryan serves as First Deputy Attorney General to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. In this role, Ryan supervises all administrative and legal issues within the Office of the Attorney General, and also serves as the primary advisor to Corbett on all major issues.

Prior to his appointment as First Deputy, Ryan served as Director of the Attorney General’s Criminal Law Division, overseeing investigations of all criminal matters including insurance fraud, environmental crimes, narcotics and Medicaid fraud.

Ryan earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s University and J.D. degree from Villanova University School of Law. Upon graduation, he was hired as a legal intern with the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, progressing to Trial Assistant, First Assistant District Attorney and later District Attorney.

Ryan is proud of his Irish heritage and traces his roots back four generations on his mother’s side and even further on his father’s. He lives with his wife, Debra, and their two sons in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 27, 1955. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1976 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1979. Roberts began his career as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1979-1980, and as a law clerk for Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1980 term.

Roberts went on to serve as a Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. In 1982, he was appointed as Associate Counsel to President Reagan and served until 1986. From 1989-1993 he was the Principal Deputy Solicitor General, following which he practiced law in Washington, D.C. He served as a Judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2003-2005 until his nomination as Chief Justice of the United States by President George W. Bush. He assumed office on September 29, 2005.

Roberts is Irish through marriage. His wife, Jane Sullivan has roots in County Limerick where the couple maintain a home. They have two children, Josephine and John.

William Ward Shearouse,Jr., of the Savannah-based firm Weiner, Shearouse, Weitz, Greenberg and Shawe, specializes in the area of real estate transactions, general business and land development. He concurrently serves as the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Savannah, and has received the prestigious AV rating, the highest mark awarded by the Martinsdale Hubbell Law Directory. A member of the Hibernian Society of Savannah, Shearouse says, “Irishmen are inclined by nature to good fellowship and charity, and should not forget the duties they owe to themselves, their national character and their distressed countrymen.”

Shearouse earned his political science degree from the University of Georgia and his J.D. from the university’s Law School, where he was a member of the Prosecutorial Clinic. He is a second-generation Irish-American whose family hails from County Cork. He lives in Savannah with his wife, Ronda.

Roger Sullivan is a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Sullivan, Workman and Dee, specializing in eminent domain and land use. He is the past chair of the eminent domain committees of the American, California and Los Angeles Bar Associations, and a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is also a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

Sullivan served in the Navy as an aviator and a qualified carrier pilot until 1947. He began his law career in 1952, having obtained his law degree from Loyola Law School, where he helped found the St. Thomas More Law Society to encourage an emphasis on ethics and morality in legal education.

He has served as president of Loyola’s Board of Visitors and received their Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989.

Sullivan, whose father’s family hails from the Beare Peninsula in County Kerry, is married with six children. He is active in the Catholic Church and is a Knight in the Papal Order of Saint Gregory.

Francis “Frank” Sweeney, who started out as General Counsel at TDK Corporation, was named Corporation President and CEO of TDK USA in 2004. He is responsible for strategic plans of subsidiaries throughout the U.S. as well as domestic and international mergers.

After receiving his B.A. in English literature from Villanova University and his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, Sweeney worked at Transamerica Interway, Inc., where he dealt with legalities in domestic and international leasing before serving as Senior Counsel at the Hertz Corporation.

A second-generation Irish-American who often quotes Oscar Wilde, Sweeney traces his roots to Counties Cavan, Mayo and Cork. He was awarded the Villanova University Distinguished Arts and Science Alumni Award in 2005, and believes that being Irish means “working hard and maximizing our God-given talents to advance each generation. Sometimes it is done with a joke or a laugh but that is just for fear of revealing the depth of the heart that cares so much.”

Sweeney lives in Connecticut with his wife of 32 years and their four children.

David C. Tierney is a partner in the Scottsdale, Arizona law firm Sacks Tierney P.A., where he acts as an arbitrator and mediator.

Named in Woodward/White, Inc.’s The Best Lawyers in America from 2003-04 through 2007-08, Tierney was also listed by Southwest Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top attorneys for 2007.

Tierney received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Brandeis University and his law degree from Harvard in 1965. He served in the Peace Corps in Venezuela in the 1960s and continues to be active in public service, for which he received an award in Maricopa County.

A third-generation Irish-American, Tierney founded the Phoenix chapter of the Irish American Cultural Institute and serves as its chairman. His father’s family hails from Limerick.

Married with two children, Sean and Connor, Tierney is a member of the Arizona Coalition for Tomorrow, which operates programs to benefit children in the state.

William Treanor is the Dean and Paul Fuller Chair of Law at Fordham Law School in New York City. He joined the faculty in 1991 and has taught a range of subjects including property law and criminal law. Prior to joining the Fordham faculty, Dean Treanor was a speechwriter for the United States Secretary of Education and served as Associate Independent Counsel in the Office of the Iran-Contra Independent Counsel. He successfully defended on appeal before the United States Court, the conviction of the only Iran-Contra figure to serve jail time.

Treanor is also a leading constitutional historian. He is active in Fordham’s summer program in affiliation with University College Dublin and Queen’s College in Belfast. His senior paper in college was on the Dublin Archdiocese and the Home Rule Movement. Dean Treanor attended Yale College for his undergraduate degree, received an A.M. in history from Harvard, where he began law school. He received his law degree from Yale Law School. Irish on both sides, with roots in County Donegal and Belfast. He and his wife, Allison, have two children, Liam and Katherine.

John F. Tully is a lawyer in the New York Office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, where he defends clients in commercial, environmental and property damage lawsuits. Tully graduated from St. Francis College in 1967 and named the new college board chairman on July 1. He received his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School. He began his legal career working in the homicide bureau of the New York County District Attorney’s office. He went on to work for ExxonMobil, where he first served as staff counsel, focusing on environmental and employment law issues, and eventually rose to the position of Assistant General Counsel, where he was responsible for worldwide litigation.

Tully is second-generation Irish-American. After emigrating to the United States from County Galway, his grandmother worked as a maid in a house on Remsen Street in Brooklyn, current home to St. Francis College, where he earned his B.A. in history. His grandfather hailed from County Cavan, where Tully, his wife and two children visited this past summer, fulfilling his desire to show the children “exactly where their great-grandfather was born and raised.”

Neal C. Tully, partner at Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP, is a member of the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has also been admitted to the Federal District Court for Massachusetts, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. A 1973 graduate of Boston College Law School, he has a general civil litigation and appellate practice with a concentration in eminent domain, land valuation and land use and development.

Tully has tried approximately sixty jury trials and an equal number of bench trials and arbitrations. He is the former chairman of the Eminent Domain Committee of the Boston Bar Association, and has lectured and written articles on eminent domain and land valuation. He was selected by Super Lawyers magazine in 2004, 2006 and 2007, and has been chosen by The American Lawyer as among the Best Lawyers in America for eminent domain and condemnation law for 2008.

Tully’s father’s side is from the Connemara area of County Galway and Cork, and his mother’s side is from Tuam, County Galway and from Donegal.

Mark Tuohey is a partner at the Washington, D.C. branch of the law firm of Vinson-Elkins, where he is a litigator and represents companies in civil and white-collar criminal litigation. He served as president of the District of Columbia Bar Association and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

As chair of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, Tuohey brought major league baseball to Washington and was named Washingtonian of the Year in 2005. A former advisor to the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, Tuohey has also served as a legal advisor to the office of Ireland’s Attorney General. He currently chairs Cooperation Ireland (U.S.), an organization involved in cross-border reconciliation efforts.

Tuohey, who received his bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure University and his law degree from Fordham University Law School, is an Irish citizen whose maternal grandparents hail from Tipperary and paternal grandfather from Galway. The grand marshal for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Washington, he is married with three children.

New York native James Wade is a partner at the law firm of Robinson and Cole LLP in Hartford, Connecticut.

He has been consistently named in the directory of Best Lawyers in America in the categories of corporate and negligence litigation and white-collar criminal defense, and has been a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1980.

Appointed by Connecticut’s governor to serve as an arbitrator on the state’s behalf in a dispute with the state of New York over Metro-North Railroad funding, Wade served as counsel to the Connecticut State Democratic Party for 20 years and as counsel to three of the state’s governors.

Wade received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1959 and went on to law school at the University of Virginia. He also served in the U.S. Navy.

Married with two children, Sarah and Michael, Wade is a third-generation Irish-American whose father’s family hails from Waterford. His mother’s family is from Dingle, County Kerry

Joseph A. Walsh is a partner and vice chairman of Winston & Straw’s corporate department. Since joining the firm in 1977, Walsh has practiced exclusively in the corporate area, concentrating in mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, as well as joint ventures for public and privately held companies. He also practices in the area of securities law and has extensive experience in sports law and media law, handling the acquisitions of the San Francisco 49ers, Denver Nuggets, Chicago White Sox, and Montreal Canadians and numerous television stations and newspapers.

Walsh serves as a panel member of the American Association of Arbitrators and as a director for the Ireland Chamber of Commerce in the United States. He received his B.A., with honors, from Indiana University in 1971 and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Indiana University Law School in 1974.

Walsh is a second-generation Irish-American whose father’s family hails from Kerry and whose mother’s is from Dublin.