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I would put our most experienced public defenders against private attorneys any day, and Rick is in that group.” To me, a real good public defender is the same as a good private (defense) attorney. “He takes the kinds of cases that are the worst of the worst. “You’ve seen the kinds of serious stuff that this guy gets involved in,” Benedetti said. He’s a leader and a mentor in the office to less experienced attorneys and no doubt to less experienced bar advocates as well. “He has years of experience that allows him to go in and take really difficult, ugly cases. “He’s been well known in Berkshire County as a great defense attorney-public defender,” said CPCS Chief Counsel Anthony J. The Duggan Award’s recipients are selected by the elected officers and senior staff of CPCS. So to be considered in the same breath with those people is just amazing.”Įdward Duggan, who died in 2004, served continuously for 57 years as a member of three separate state committees that were the forerunners of the state Committee for Public Counseling Services, which was founded in 1984.
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“If you look to see the people who have won that award in the past, there are some absolutely incredible trial attorneys and appellate attorneys on that list - and there’s not that many because the award hasn’t been given out that long. “I was actually blown away,” said LeBlanc, who was nominated by three of his colleagues at CPCS: Susan Lyman, Jill Sheldon and Ryan Smith. Donohue, who founded the Berkshire County bar advocate’s office, received the Duggan Award for private council attorney several years ago, LeBlanc said. Benedetti believes LeBlanc is the first public defender from Berkshire County, and possibly Western Massachusetts, to receive the Duggan Award, which was first presented in 1988. Defendants, who fall into that category, receive a court-appointed public defender or other attorney to represent them.Īlthough CPCS could not confirm it, the organization’s general counsel Anthony J. In legal terms, indigents are identified as people who lack the sufficient income to afford a lawyer for their defense in a criminal case.
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Duggan Award from the state Committee for Public Counseling Services, which is presented annually to the public defender and private attorney in Massachusetts who best represents “zealous advocacy,” which the committee considers to be the central principle governing the representations of indigents in the state. LeBlanc, who has been a member of the Public Defender Division’s Berkshire County Office for 35 years, recently received the Edward J.
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He’s represented two of Berkshire County’s most notorious defendants, convicted child serial killer Lewis Lent, and convicted school shooter Wayne Lo. LeBlanc turned his love for Mason into a love for the law into a career as a public defender - “it’s all I ever wanted to do” - where he’s often found himself representing clients facing the same situations that his television alter ego was up against. “It just fascinated me the way the whole thing worked.”įast forward several years. “The law was right down the line,” said LeBlanc, a Pittsfield native who graduated from Taconic High School in 1971. LeBlanc’s whole family were big fans of the show Rick especially liked the way it contained realistic interpretations of the law. Mason’s exploits became the subject of one of the most beloved and long running crime dramas in television history.
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They included books by Erle Stanley Gardner, who created Perry Mason, a Los Angeles defense attorney who fought long odds trying to clear his clients from seemingly insurmountable situations. PITTSFIELD - Richard LeBlanc’s mother loved novels that were written by mystery writers. Including two of the most notorious defendants in county history, Lewis Lent and Wayne Lo. Attorney Richard LeBlanc of Pittsfield has represented countless clients facing long odds in Berkshire courtrooms.