Patricia Gorman (2010-2011)

Jane Taubner Barney (2009-2010)

Annette M. Hines, President (2008-2009)

Michelle J. Lespasio, President (2007-2008)

Rosemary Eacmen, President (2006-2007)

Jocelynne Deborah Welsh, President (2005-2006)

Jocelynne Deborah Welsh originally from New York City , is a graduate of Northeastern University and Suffolk University Law School. She was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1980.

Since 1985 she has been Administrative Attorney for the Probate and Family Court Department working for and with three consecutive Chief Justices of the Department. This position has afforded her many opportunities including sitting as Assistant Register with several Probate and Family Court justices; conducting site visits and audits in connection with improving caseflow; developing and coordinating semi-annual conferences and forums for the justices; abstracting relevant cases and drafting forms; preparing bulletins for justices, Registers of Probate, Assistant Registers, and Chief Probation Officers; conducting interviews of applicants for various positions within the department; and presenting educational programs for non-judges.

She has been a member of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers and a board member for the past seven years. She has hosted the Legal Line and chaired the annual Holiday Toast.

Attorney Welsh is a member of the Family Law Section Council of the Boston Bar Association. She is also a Massachusetts Bar Foundation Fellow, and a member of the Massachusetts Family and Probate American Inn of Court, the Massachusetts Bar Association, and the Massachusetts Black Women's Association.

She was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court 's Commission to Study Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts and to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court 's Standing Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution for which she chaired the Implementation Subcommittee.

Attorney Welsh and her husband, Donald McLane, have a delightful daughter: Adrianna Jewell McLane, who, in December 2001 at the age of seventeen months, attended her first MAWL Board Meeting at the Park Plaza Hotel!

Attorney Welsh teaches cardiopulmonary resuscitation regularly. She enjoys traveling, riding her horse, theater, reading, and especially relishes spending as much time as possible with Adrianna.

Carol L. Reiter, President (2004-2005)

 A 1985 graduate of the New England School of Law, Attorney Reiter also holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Marshall University, and a BA in Political Science from George Washington University. She was an editor of her law review, and following law school, held one of two Massachusetts District Court clerkships.

Martha Rush O'Mara, President (2003-2004)

Martha Rush O'Mara is a graduate of Salem State College and New England School of Law. She was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1991 and admitted to the United States Supreme Court in 2000.

In 1993 she became a sole practitioner, representing children and parents in Boston Juvenile Court and the Probate and Family Courts of the Commonwealth. She also serves as Guardian ad Litem in child welfare and custody cases.

Attorney Rush O'Mara has been active in the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers (MAWL) since 1991, and she has been on the MAWL Board of Directors since 1994. She has participated in the Suffolk County Lawyer for the Day program for over ten years. She is also a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA), the Mass. Association of Court Appointed Attorneys, the Juvenile Bar Association (JBA) and the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC). She was the MAWL designee on the Hon. Ruth I. Abrams Endowment Committee.

For several years Attorney Rush O'Mara served as co-producer with Rosemary McAuliffe of the weekly, live, call-in program “The Legal Line” sponsored by MAWL on Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN). She continues to host The Legal Line and some of her guests have included: the Honorable Mary Ann Driscoll, MAWL Board member and former Suffolk ADA Tracy Lee Lyons; MAWL board member Michelle Lespasio; MAWL Past Presidents Diane J. Capozzoli, Lois Morse and Celia B. Weinstein; the Honorable R. Marc Kantrowitz, the Honorable Robert J. Kane and Attorneys Joseph Balliro, William Carroll, James Hoey, James McCusker, and Steve Weymouth.

Attorney Rush O'Mara and her husband Robert have two children—Molly recently graduated from UMass/Amherst and Daniel is attending New England Culinary Institute of Vermont. Attorney Rush O'Mara teaches religious education to high school students and was a citizenship tutor with the International Institute of Boston. Her hobbies are the Red Sox, sports and reading.

Attorney Rush O'Mara can be contacted at mrushomara@aol.com or by telephone at (781) 662-7226.

Bridget Gassner, President (2002-2003)

Born and raised in Texarkana , Arkansas , Bridget Wright holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English from the University of Arkansas and St. Louis University , respectively. She graduated from Suffolk University Law School in1990 and is licensed to practice in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island . She concentrates her practice in juvenile and mental health law.

Bridget joined the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers in 1991 and was encouraged by her mentor, Gertrude Weiner, to join the Board. She has served as a MAWL Board member for approximately 11 years and was President of MAWL for the 2002-2003 year. Bridget has also hosted “The Legal Line”, a Boston Cable Television program covering important local legal issues.

In her spare time, Bridget enjoys gardening and studying the martial arts, having earned a black belt in two arts, karate and aiki-ju-jutsu.

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