On May 7, 2015, the Massachusetts Bar Association presented Ben Evans, a supervising attorney in the Public Defender Division’s Fall River office with the prestigious Access to Justice Defender Award. After graduating from law school in 2005, Ben started as a staff attorney in the New Bedford office. Ben has been a supervising attorney in the Fall River office since 2011. Ben has been a mentor to many staff attorneys and law school interns.
Congratulations to Ben Evans, a public defender who inspires his colleagues to put their hearts and souls into the important work of representing poor people accused of crimes.
Here is the write-up that appeared in the MBA Annual Dinner program:
When public defender Benjamin Evans is first assigned a case, his priority is letting the client know that someone is in their corner. For some of the defendants Evans represents, this will be a first for them. Working as the Fall River supervising attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), Evans must balance the duty of providing a high level of service with maintaining large numbers of clients appointed to him by the court. But each case is unique and, for Evans, everything comes together when he sees a client’s face when a jury returns a verdict of “not guilty.” But criminal defendants aren’t Evans’ only “clients.” The Fall River CPCS Office runs a robust internship program that gives young law students and those who are Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3.03 certified the opportunity to immerse themselves in criminal cases in District Court. Like legal apprenticeships from days gone by, Evans said he thinks practical experience while in law school is critical to the successful practice of law, especially criminal defense.