Local residents with the law firm Robinson Donovan, P.C., based in Springfield, who have been named 2020 Massachusetts Super Lawyers include:
Partner Patricia M. Rapinchuk of Northampton, selected to the list consecutively for 15 years. She practices employment law and litigation, and received her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1979, and her law degree from University of Connecticut in 1989.
Partner Michael J. Simolo of Northampton, in the field of estate and probate law, previously named to the Rising Stars list on five occasions. He received his bachelor’s degree from Hobart College, Geneva, New York, in 1998 and law degree from Cornell Law School, Ithaca, New York, in 2002.
Partner Jeffrey J. Trapani of Florence, a litigation and employment law attorney, previously named to the Rising Stars list every year from 2008–2018. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1999 and law degree from New England School of Law, Boston, in 2004.
Associate Hunter Keil of Easthampton was selected to the 2020 Massachusetts Rising Stars list in the field of employment and labor law, his first selection year.He received his bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 2009, and his law degree from Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, in 2013.
Local residents with the law firm Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, based in Springfield, who have been named 2020 Massachusetts Super Lawyers include:
Shareholder Gary S. Fentin of Conway, selected for the 15th year in the field of government finance.
Shareholder Carol Cioe Klyman of Westhampton. She has been recognized in the field of elder law for 16 years.
HADLEY — UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is running a winter coat and cold weather clothing drive in its Hadley and Northampton branches throughout December. The donations are part of an effort to ensure that all community members have access to cold-weather clothing this winter, and will be distributed in partnership with the Amherst Survival Center.
UMassFive gratefully accepts any and all clean, new or gently-used coats, gloves, scarves, hats, sweaters and blankets. Donations should be placed in a bag, and may be dropped off during business hours to the Hadley branch at 200 Westgate Center Drive or Northampton branch at 225 King St.
SOUTH HADLEY — E Ink donated $15,000 to South Hadley Public Schools to support the schools in a challenging learning environment. They also donated 10 Sony Digital Paper devices, which utilize E Ink’s digital paper technology, to school administrators for use as academic tools for students and teachers.
As a part of the communities they work in, E Ink’s donations were made to ease the costs of remote learning. The company’s U.S. headquarters are in Billerica, and the company has a manufacturing facility in South Hadley. E Ink has made a similar donation to Shawsheen Valley Technical School in Billerica and plan to donate to a third school nearby to their Fremont, California, location.
LINCOLN — As part of Mass Audubon’s pledge to become a more effective, efficient and responsive organization, the conservation nonprofit has named Becky Cushing-Gop to oversee its western Massachusetts wildlife sanctuaries.
Cushing-Gop has become a well-known figure throughout the region in the six years since she arrived in the Upper Housatonic Valley to manage Mass Audubon’s sanctuaries in the Berkshires — Canoe Meadows in Pittsfield, Pleasant Valley in Lenox, Lime Kiln Farm in Sheffield and, more recently, Tracy Brook in Richmond.
As director, Mass Audubon West, she will now oversee all wildlife sanctuaries from the Connecticut River Valley west to the New York border.
They also include: Arcadia in Easthampton and Northampton, Conway Hills in Conway, Graves Farm in Williamsburg, High Ledges in Shelburne, Laughing Brook in Hampden, Lynes Woods in Westhampton, Poor Farm Hill in New Salem, Richardson Brook in Tolland, Road’s End in Worthington, and West Mountain in Plainfield
Cushing-Gop will also be working closely with Jonah Keane, who as Connecticut River Valley Sanctuaries Director will share with her his substantial knowledge of those properties and the Valley communities they serve.
Cushing-Gop holds an master’s degree from the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist program and a bachelor’s degree in conservation biology from Middlebury College. A graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School and Sea Education Association, she was awarded a Berkshire “40 under Forty” recognition in 2019.
She intends to ensure that Mass Audubon West wildlife sanctuaries serve as valued resources for their communities, and that residents discover that these nature oases can offer visitors sanctuary in every sense of the word.