Mass. Bar Association Honors Marblehead's Anne Stevenson

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Massachusetts Bar Association honored Marblehead resident and lawyer Anne Stevenson this week for her commitment to "represent the underrepresented" amid the immense challenges of the coronavirus health crisis.

Stevenson, whose clients include the mentally ill, severely disabled and children in need of assistance, was chosen as the MBA's 2020 Outstanding Young Lawyer and was presented the award at a virtual ceremony on Wednesday.

"COVID didn't slow Ms. Stevenson down, but it did create grave hurdles for her clients, which she dedicated her time and efforts to overcoming," the MBA said in announcing her award. "Commitment hearings were initially conducted via phone only, which limited her clients' ability to meaningfully participate, and it limited her ability to adequately represent them. So, Ms. Stevenson donned her protective gear and entered hospitals filled with COVID patients to better represent her clients, and at the same time, she pressured local courts to hold commitment hearings via Zoom, which provided better due process.

"It worked, and her local Essex county courts were some of the first to hold commitment hearings remotely."

Stevenson told Patch her clients' disadvantages were exacerbated immensely at the start of the coronavirus crisis when they faced neglect and the risk of not having due process because of visitation and other restrictions. She said her clients often have trouble with communication skills, which makes assisting them on the telephone or remotely very difficult.

She said she was proud to be recognized for helping those clients have their legal rights recognized during the pandemic and beyond.

"The award is important to me because these are people who live in our community whether we often like to admit it or not," Stevenson told Patch. "This award is acknowledging that they exist and they matter."

Stevenson said she quickly found out there were "no rules in place and no law" to deal with the pandemic shutdowns when it came to the courts and she was determined to "push every day to hold the state accountable when it didn't provide services or things didn't go as we would hope they would."

"People don't always like to hear that," she said. "Going over people's heads doesn't always make you popular. But sometimes that's what you have to do."

She allowed she was first confused when the Bar Association called before learning it was for the Outstanding Young Lawyer award.

"Usually, you only hear from them when you're in trouble," she said.

But the MBA's praise for Stevenson’s work, which includes having two cases heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 2019, was effusive.

"Stevenson's passion for representing the underrepresented was immediately apparent from the moment she was admitted to our bar," the MBA said. "She actually arranged to be sworn in early so that she could attend training on civil commitment hearings, and she signed up as a bar advocate immediately after. Basically, she was so eager to represent the underrepresented that she accelerated the process.

“Stevenson's trial advocacy was so good that she's developed a reputation for excellence in preserving an appellate record at trial."

Stevenson graduated from Suffolk Law in 2017 after a gap in schooling while she raised her son as a single mother.

She has been vocal in supporting the rights of the underserved in town and is currently running a sticker campaign for Board of Selectmen.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)