By Shalene Gupta
law briefs
On January 6, 2021, then-Deputy Chief U.S. Attorney Alyse Constantinide, BA ’07, JD ’10, was at the U.S. Capitol, serving as an adviser to D.C. police leadership. She had been there many times before in her role as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice. On this day, however, as the Stop the Steal rally unfolded and armed insurgents stormed the building, it was unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
When she and a police lieutenant drove to the Capitol, they encountered a crowd of thousands of people, carrying signs and yelling. As they got to the building, hordes of people were scaling the scaffolding and banging on doors.
Moments later, Constantinide saw a plume of smoke, felt a flash of pain, and then her vision went blurry. She’d been tear gassed.
“I’ve never been afraid for my life before,” she says now. “That day, I was afraid.” Soon, she was evacuated from the grounds.
The next day, on January 7, Constantinide made history by arraigning the very first defendants to be charged in the insurrection.
“What’s great about America, and why I liked working for the U.S. government, is that we can have a difference of opinion,” Constantinide says. “But that also means we respect the process. And what I saw that day was an utter disregard, not just for the process but for the entire U.S. government system as a whole.”
Leading up to 2021, Constantinide built a career as an assistant U.S. attorney and then as deputy chief of the federal trial unit. She tried more than 40 cases and led extensive criminal investigations, working closely with the FBI, the Capitol Police, and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department while earning multiple special achievement awards.
At Suffolk Law, she flourished, giving credit to supportive and inspiring faculty like Andrew Perlman, now dean, who taught her Civil Procedure. He had a mastery of the material that made the course fascinating and made her want to learn more, she says. “I felt supported at Suffolk, and I loved the people.”
Today Constantinide is a principal with Beveridge & Diamond, one of the country’s top environmental law firms, where she conducts investigations and helps companies comply with environmental regulations.
In part, Constantinide was drawn to the firm to work on challenging legal matters, including climate change, emerging contaminants, and environmental justice, alongside other lawyers who had high-level federal government experience.
"Being a prosecutor was my dream job,” she says. “But part of loving a job is knowing when to step away.”
This story was adapted from Shalene Gupta’s article in Suffolk University Magazine (Spring 2022). Read the full-length feature at bit.ly/Jan6prosecutor.
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winter 2023
Photograph by Kelvin Bulluck
