Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys Members

Christopher F. Connolly is an attorney in private practice in Framingham, Massachusetts specializing in retirement and government law. Previously, Chris served as the Chief Administrative Magistrate of the Division of Administrative Law Appeals for 28 years, having been appointed by Governor Edward King. Before his service at the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, he was a trial attorney both in private practice and as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County.

Chris serves as a frequent faculty member for programs sponsored by the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education program and the Flashner Judicial Institute in addition to serving as a regular panelist at Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems conferences. He is a founder and member of the National Association of Central Panel Directors and Chief Administrative Law Judges. He is a member of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges and the Massachusetts Bar Association. He is a past supervisor of New England School of Law students enrolled in clinical courses.

Chris is certified as a mediator, having completed the course of study, “Mediation for Administrative Law Judges,” conducted by the National Association of Administrative Law Judges and the American Bar Association.

Judith A. Corrigan

Ms. Corrigan currently serves as Deputy General Counsel for the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC.) She became Deputy General Counsel in 2005, and began working at PERAC as Associate General Counsel in March of 1999. Prior to being hired by PERAC, she served as both Staff Attorney and Senior Attorney for the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, Inc.("Appalred"), an organization providing legal services to the poor in rural Appalachia.. A member of the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Kentucky bars, she is also admitted to the Federal Court in the Districts of New Hampshire and Eastern Kentucky, and to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit where she successfully argued a case regarding a coalminer's pension service. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from Suffolk University and earned her J.D. degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

Nicola Favorito

Mr. Favorito is currently the Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Board of Retirement. Prior to coming to the Retirement Board Mr. Favorito was an associate in the firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP in Quincy, Massachusetts, where we practiced in the areas of public employee retirement law, education, special education, and municipal law. Mr. Favorito is a graduate of Harvard College and Suffolk University Law School.

Kimberly Fletcher has been of counsel to the Law Offices of Thomas F. Gibson since September 2008. The firm provides legal services to many Massachusetts retirement boards and additionally represents members and beneficiaries of other public retirement systems.

Prior to joining the Law Offices of Thomas F. Gibson, Kimberly served as the First Administrative Magistrate with the Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA) from 1999 until her retirement in June 2008, having begun at DALA as an Administrative Magistrate in 1985. She wrote over 1,000 decisions in retirement law appeals, many of which continue to be cited as precedent in the complex areas of disability, creditable service, regular compensation, and membership eligibility. She co-authored a chapter on retirement law for the 2002 MCLE Massachusetts Municipal Law. She has been a frequent panelist at Mass. Association of Contributory Retirement Systems conferences, the Flashner Judicial Institute Training Program for Administrative Law Judges, and the National Association of Central Panel Directors.

In November 2008, Kimberly was appointed to the Newton Retirement Board. She is the secretary to the Mass. Association of Public Pension Attorneys and is a member of the Mass. Bar Association.

Kimberly is a member of the Board of Directors of the M. Patricia Cronin Foundation to Fight Ovarian Cancer and has been a Dana-Farber Boston Marathon Challenge runner for the past 15 years.

Thomas F. Gibson

Thomas F. Gibson has maintained a law practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the past 25 years. Tom represents multiple municipal retirement boards, as well as the members and beneficiaries of other public retirement systems. Tom serves as Chairman of the Middlesex County Retirement Board and as Vice-Chairman of the Belmont Retirement Board.

Tom is a graduate of Boston College with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and obtained his degree of Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School. His professional memberships include the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, the Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys (Past President) the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Cambridge-Arlington-Belmont Bar Association (Past President) and the Middlesex County Bar Association. Tom is a Fellow and Life Member of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, where he has served on the IOLTA Grant Review Committee. Tom has served as a faculty member of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Professional Educational Program, and is a regular panelist for the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems (MACRS).

Kathleen Kiely-Becchetti

Ms. Kiely-Becchetti serves as General Counsel to the Boston Retirement Board. As General Counsel she oversees all legal matters pertaining to the Retirement Board and its retirement system. Prior to joining the BRB, Kathleen spent nine years working for the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Employees’ Retirement Board. She is a graduate of Suffolk University with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Paralegal Studies and Psychology. She earned her Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Connecticut.. She is a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys and the American Bar Association. She has been named the next President of the Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys, to take office in September 2008 for a two year term.

Derek M. Moitoso, Esq.

Mr. Moitoso is currently Associate General Counsel at the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (“PERAC”), the agency responsible for the oversight, guidance, monitoring, and regulation of the 106 Massachusetts Public Pension Systems. His advises and counsels the systems’ boards, their members, and their retirees to ensure the professional, prudent, and efficient administration of these systems. He regularly represents PERAC before the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, the Contributory Retirement Appeals Board, and the Superior Court. Prior to working at PERAC, Mr. Moitoso was Associate General Counsel for Massachusetts State Treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill and the State Retirement Board. Prior to joining the public sector Mr. Moitoso was a Corporate Associate at and Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, LLP and Litigation Associate at Donovan Hatem, LLP. Mr. Moitoso served as a law clerk for the Honorable Thomas F. Hogan, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court in Washington, DC and the Honorable H.F. Gierke, Chief Justice, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, DC. He was also a congressional aide to the Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy, U.S. House of Representatives.

Mr. Moitoso graduated from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC in 2001. He was selected to serve on the Catholic University Law Review and received the W. Hobart & Cox Little Scholarship. Mr. Moitoso is a 1998 graduate of Providence College in Providence, RI with a Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude, a Martin Luther King, Jr. Full Tuition Scholar, and a member of the Phi Sigma Alpha Honor Society.

Mr. Moitoso is active member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems, the Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys, the Knights of Columbus, the Portuguese Continental Union, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Rhode Island Bar Association, and the District of Columbia Bar Association.

Carol E. Nesson

Carol E. Nesson practices law in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, specializing in public pension law. She served as full-time, in-house counsel to the Boston Retirement Board for eleven years and now serves as counsel to the Berkshire Retirement Board. Her Boston practice covered all aspects of benefits, including worker's comp, family support, disability, divorce and forfeiture, and the Board's investment program. She represented retirement boards throughout the administrative appeals process and in the trial and appellate courts of the Commonwealth and the United States. Formerly, she was an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Boston, practicing municipal law.

Carol is a frequent presenter at the legal education programs of the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems and the Middlesex Retirement System. She has lectured and written extensively on the division of Massachusetts public pensions in divorce.

Carol is a graduate of Simmons College and Boston University School of Law. She was a founder and the first president of the Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys. She is a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, and the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.

James O’Leary

Prior to becoming Associate General Counsel at the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement Board, Mr. O’Leary was an analyst with John Hancock, as well as an attorney in the private sector. He has litigated employment issues before the Division of Employment and Training and workers compensation issues before the Industrial Accidents Board. He has also represented clients in bankruptcy, divorce, and personal injury cases in the Federal Bankruptcy Courts and the District and Superior courts of Massachusetts.

Mr. O’Leary is a graduate of Boston University and a 1993 graduate of New England School of Law. He became a member of the Bar in 1993, and is admitted to practice in the Massachusetts State Courts, the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Appeals Court for the First Circuit.

Barbara Phillips, General Counsel
Public Emlyee Retirement Administration Commission

Nicholas Poser

Nicholas Poser is a solo practitioner in Boston. He is a 1981 graduate of the University of Vermont and a 1985 graduate of Suffolk University Law School. In 1991, after serving as assistant counsel to the Boston Retirement Board for four years, he started his current law practice where he concentrates in Massachusetts Public Retirement Law representing retirement boards as well as employees. He is a member of the Boston Bar Association, and a Proprietor of the Social Law Library. Mr. Poser is the current President of the Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys.

James H. Quirk, Jr.

James H. Quirk, Jr. is a founding partner in the law firm of Quirk & Chamberlain, P.C. He has maintained a general practice in Yarmouth since 1975 and has specialized in public pension law with the Barnstable County Retirement System since 1977 working with other systems over the years in all areas of retirement law.

Jim has handled cases before the three (3) member Contributory Retirement Appeal Board prior to the creation of the Division of Administrative law Appeals. He has handled CRAB review appeals, the Supreme Judicial Court, The United States First District Court, and the First District Court of Appeals. He has handled cases on member’s disability claims, claims for workers compensation set-off, creditable service, membership group classification, relation of PERAC to the Boards, investment issues, Section 9 and Section 10 benefits, issues related to Section 15, Section 16 on removal and/or discharge, Section 19 QDRO issues of alienation of benefits, Section 20 and 21, Section 22 and its subsections, Section 23, Section 57 and 58, Section 68, Section 89, 90A, 90B, 90F and 90G, Section 91, 91A, 94, 94A, 100, 101 and 102.

Jim has been involved in the legislative process by providing testimony at public hearings before the public service committees. He has been involved in compliance issues with respect to investment regulations and has done extensive contract preparation. He has lectured and been involved in education of Chapter 32 for almost 15 years.

Jim’s other areas of practice include: civil litigation with an emphasis on real estate litigation, land use and real estate regulatory issues. He is a Land Court Title Examiner and expert witness in many courts on real estate related matters.

Michael Sacco

Michael graduated with a B.A. from Boston College in 1987, and a J.D. from Suffolk University law School in 1992. Upon graduating, he worked for two years as the Assistant Legal Counsel for the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement Board prior to accepting an associate’s position with Finnegan, Hickey, Dinsmoor & Johnson, P.C.

His professional associations include Massachusetts Bar Association, Belmont/Cambridge Bar Association, Massachusetts Association of Public Pension Attorneys and the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys.

Michael is also formerly a partner with the Boston law firms Peabody & Arnold and Hill & Barlow. Mr. Sacco is also a member of the Justinian Law Society. Michael Sacco is a former partner with the Boston law firms Peabody & Arnold, Hill & Barlow and Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. He now practices law in South Hampton, MA.

James H. Salvie

Formerly its Deputy General Counsel, Mr. Salvie is the current General Counsel for the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement Board. Before joining the TRB in 1997, he worked for the law firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, where he was counsel to the Norfolk County Retirement Board and several municipal retirement boards. An attorney since 1986, he is a graduate of Cornell University and received his law degree from the George Washington University.

Joan Schloss

Formerly its General Counsel, Ms. Schloss is currently the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement Board. Prior to coming to the Retirement Board in 1986, she was an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the City of Boston Law Department assigned to represent the State-Boston Retirement Board. An attorney since 1980, Joan is a graduate of Boston University and received her law degree from Suffolk University.

Our Members

Christopher F. Connolly