Former speaker Finneran fights to remain a lawyer

December 18, 2007 07:15 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

Former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran fought to retain his right to practice law in a hearing today before a Board of Bar Overseers panel.

The Mattapan Democrat's license to practice law was suspended when he pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston earlier this year to one count of obstruction of justice that grew out of a lawsuit by minority activists over a redistricting plan that diluted the political power of minority voters.

Finneran, 57, told the panel today that some of his actions were taken at the direction of his House attorney and that he was consumed by budget battles, not redistricting, at the time he was questioned under oath about the redistricting plan.

"We had much more severe issues to deal with," he said of the first year of the Romney administration when the state budget was $3 billion short. "It was in the rear view mirror."

It was the second day of a hearing that could lead to his reinstatement -- or disbarment -- as an attorney. Sometime next year, the three-person panel will recommend what sanction, if any, Finneran should face, to the full Board of Bar Overseers. The Supreme Judicial Court has the final say on lawyer discipline.

Also today, two Republican attorneys who knew Finneran when they worked on Beacon Hill strongly endorsed his integrity while denouncing the federal prosecution.

Leonard Lewin, who was chief legal counsel to former Republican governors Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift from 1999 to 2001, said Finneran was the victim of a political "witch hunt."

Mark Robinson, once a top US Department of Justice official and a former federal prosecutor as well as a top official in the Weld administration, said Finneran should not have been charged with a crime.

"I thought it was a tragedy," said Robinson, who also testified that he offered to represent Finneran for free if he went to trial. "I think he's suffered enough."

Finneran now hosts a morning talk show on WRKO-AM and is scheduled to undergo prostate cancer surgery this weekend at Massachusetts General Hospital.