By Michael Fisch
law briefs
The Suffolk Law community and a group of Bay State political leaders gathered on May 25, 2022, for the naming of the Law School’s chief gathering spot—the first-floor function room of Sargent Hall—in honor of attorney George N. Keches, JD ’75.
Keches and his wife, Ann Maguire Keches, have pledged $1 million to Suffolk Law to create two new scholarships focused on first-generation students with financial need.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito called the ceremony a “full-circle moment”–47 years after George Keches arrived to start Law School, the Kecheses’ major gift will allow a new generation a shot at a legal education. Polito thanked the couple for “investing in young people who just have dreams that they want to see come true.”
George Keches, Polito, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (who attended via Zoom), U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, Suffolk University President Marisa Kelly, Suffolk Law Dean Andrew Perlman, and incoming Black Law Student Association President Kerimal Suriel Guerrero all shared remarks.
“I want nothing more than to have the ability to follow in your footsteps one day and support my alma mater just as you are doing today,” Guerrero told the Kecheses. “The key factor I want you to take away,” she said, “is that there are thousands, maybe even millions, of families just like mine that simply need a little bit of help to find their way.”
George Keches described the new scholarship program as a way to create “a legacy that will endure,” offering a new set of students a chance to join the profession. The scholarship funds wouldn’t have been possible, he added, were it not for his wife. Her legal successes as “one of the two female attorneys who broke the ceiling in practicing litigation law in the ‘80s” allowed him to take a chance and launch his own firm, he said.
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winter 2023
Photograph by John Gillooly
