Jeffrey Denner has had his share of big Boston cases during a 35 -year career spent in the law. The Yale man with a Harvard law degree has catapulted into the public eye recently representing Clark Rockefeller and the family of Melina Del Dalle, who was crushed to death by the collapse of a cement roof panel in the Big Dig Tunnel on I-90.
Rockefeller is in jail awaiting appeal. The Del Dalle’s received a $21.8 million settlement.
Denner is a commanding presence, articulate, to the point, thoughtful, very bright, with a strong belief in himself. He is the epitome of the self-made man who remains enthusiastic about his profession and about the law firm he heads, and which he founded. Denner Pellegrino, LLP occupies the 35 floor at 4 Longfellow Place. It is busy firm with more than 40 lawyers. Denner describes the firm as an exceedingly talented group of lawyers, including many big names, former federal and state prosecutors as well as in-house forensic investigators.
Denner Pellegrino delivers litigation services to people with problems. Denner says there is a lot of talent. “We can operate successfully in many areas.”
At 62, he is building the firm at a time when many old-line firms in Boston have broken up, been bought out or disappeared entirely.
He wants to take the firm to the next level – and he’s the type of lawyer more than able to do it.
He was recently interviewed by our editor Josh Resnek at the Demoulas Market Basket dining area in Chelsea over a luncheon of sashimi and mixed Japanese vegetables.

Question: How is Clark doing?

Denner: There are a lot of different Clarks and they’re all doing well.

Question: Do you have a deeper insight into the legal system because the jury didn’t buy the Rockefeller insanity defense?

Denner: I learned a lot more about life than the law from this case. I always realized the insanity defense was disfavored by civilians and jurors. What I didn’t understand was the almost astonishing connection between a functionally insane person such as Clark Rockefeller and the society which both enabled and encouraged his insanity.

Question: Is there a book in the works?

Denner: A variety of movies and documentaries are apparently in the works. However, our focus is on the post conviction process that Clark is facing – and the matter in California where he’s a person of interest in the disappearance of a California couple who rented him an apartment in their home two decades ago.

Question: What about your law firm? What does Denner Pellegrino do best?

Denner: We specialize in major white collar crime. We’re also a litigation law firm. We do regulatory and licensing issues for professionals in federal and state courts. We go to trial at appellate levels in New England, nationally and internationally. And we have a strong civil practice to deal with high end and high profile clients from business to divorce.

Question: What cases have you done besides Rockefeller and the Big Dig that we’ve all read about?

Denner: I sued the FBI and the Irish mob – Billy Bulger and James “The Rifleman” Flemmi - for the execution style murder of John McIntire. McINtire was killed when the FBI disclosed to Bulger and Flemmi that he was cooperating. They tortured him before executing him. I represent David Swayne in the sensational murder of his wife in the Virgin Islands. And I am representing James Clarke, who killed his grandmother in Weston.

Question: So you are very busy. You tell me you go 90 hours in a week if necessary. How do you view the next five years as a lawyer?

Denner: I want to take the law firm to the next level. Whether it is criminal or civil, state or federal, high profile or nuts and bolts law for professionals – Denner Pellegrino will get the job done.

Question: When you’re not doing the law, what keeps you going?

Denner: My kids. I have two in college and one in high school. I have a 33 year old step-son. I’m active with all of them.

Question: What did you think of Ted Kennedy?

Denner: I never met him. Obviously, he was someone who matured in a good way. I thought, on balance, he did a lot more good than bad. He ended up living a life to be proud of.

With young children spending increasingly more time playing video games and watching television, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign aims to make reading a more popular pastime among preschoolers.
“We asked ourselves how we could increase awareness among the general public about the need for quality early education experiences, both in the classroom and in individual homes,” said Katie DeGuglielmo, a spokesperson for Jumpstart, a national nonprofit that offers year-round individualized tutoring and mentoring to 3- to 5-year-olds from college students and other volunteers. “In addition to increasing awareness, we also wanted to create a way for the general public to join us in our mission.”
Launched in 2006 in partnership in the Pearson Foundation, the self-described “philanthropic arm” of Pearson Education, the international leader in media and education, Read for Readiness is a national reading campaign that encourages young children and adults nationwide to read the same book on the same day. This year’s event, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 8, is expected to see an unprecedented 1 million people reading Eric Carle’s beloved children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and features 7,000 group-reading events through the country, including one at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square that is expected to draw 300 participants.
Last year, the campaign included around 700,000 participants, with a reading event at Faneuil Hall attracting a crowd of approximately 200.
DeGuglielmo said children and their guardians who can’t attend one of the events can still pledge to read at www.readfortherecord.org and be counted towards the total tally for Read for the Record.
In addition, Jumpstart is donating 250,000 copies of Carle’s book to children from low-income families so they too can take part in the literacy campaign.
Jumpstart also encourages people to buy books for Read for the Record at Walmart locations on Monday, Sept. 7, or to make donations at the aforementioned Web site.
“This campaign provides a way for members of the public to actively engage in Jumpstart’s work, in the same way that Habitat for Humanity allows people to help the cause of homelessness by picking up a hammer,” DeGuglielmo said.

Cleaning up the rampant graffiti in the Back Bay is no small task, which is why Graffiti NABBers is seeking volunteers to help out on in its Fall Cleaning later this month.
Graffiti NABBers, a volunteer committee of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB), was established in the spring of 2006 to fight the graffiti problem that has long plagued the Back Bay and earned it the dubious distinction as a destination spot for taggers from around the country and the world. Since its inception, the committee has cleaned lower stories of neighborhood buildings at the city’s expense and contributed evidence and made statements to assist Boston Police in capturing and prosecuting vandals.
Anne Swanson, who co-chairs Graffiti NABBers with Kathleen Alexander, said the group has abandoned almost weekly graffiti cleanings and instead oversees two large-scale removals each year – one in the spring, the other in fall - that focus primarily on Newbury and Boylston streets.
The semi-annual cleanings now complement Graffiti NABBers’ newly launched “Adopt Your Streetscape” program, which asks that business and property owners to take accountability for their piece of the neighborhood by surveying their area each week, removing small tags and notifying the city of graffiti.
“I think the combination [of the two programs] will work,” Swanson said. “We still need periodic large-scale cleanups, while at the same time, we need property owners to take responsibility for their piece of the streetscape.”
Graffiti NABBers’ Fall Cleaning takes place on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 8 to 10 a.m. (The rain date is Sunday, Sept. 13). Volunteers are asked to meet outside the NABB office at 337 Newbury St. Training and cleaning materials will be provided.
For more information about Graffiti NABBers and the Fall Cleaning, contact Graffiti NABBers co-chair Anne Swanson at 617-262-0675 or anneswanson@verizon.net or co-chair Kathleen Alexander at 617-794-1253 or kathleen@bostonlivescreatively.com.

Has it really been 10 years? Nah, it can’t be. Ten is the new five, right? And being smart is the new black. With that said, yes, Beacon Hill Seminars (BHS) was formed by a group of community activists to offer courses found at a good university and keep people smart. It was decided by the founders that the non-profit would function best as a membership organization, but one that was open to anyone from anywhere, with generous scholarships in place.
Ten years ago, BHS got off the ground and has quietly, firmly and with great style
grew its membership of all ages not only from the Hill but from many communities in and surrounding Boston. Under the guidance of a committed and hardworking board of directors, it filled a need and plans are afoot to celebrate the 10th anniversary in 2010 - properly, with a party, hats and a cake.
For the fall 2009 semester, the Curriculum Committee, headed by Beatrice Nessen and Ryan Gunsalus, put together a record 20 courses, one of which is aptly titled,
“What is God’s Name is a Community Organizer?” Ruth Ann Bramson, a five-star community organizer herself is going to discuss the principles and information technology of the Obama campaign, among other inside info, and what this will mean for the future of electoral politics. For the first time in BHS’ history, courses are being offered on Mondays and Fridays to accommodate its growth, bringing a big smile to the faces of students and instructors alike.
For example, Nancy Smith, an historian and professional appraiser of decorative arts, will use objects from the Nichols House Museum to enhance learning in her course entitled “Training Your Eye: Historic Decorative Arts Connoisseurship.”
Rare is the Bostonian whose bottom line wasn’t affected by the economic turmoil. Peter Fortune, formerly on the faculties of Harvard and Tufts, and having done a stint at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, is eminently qualified to highlight how we got here and will lead a discussion of economic and financial issues suggested by participants. “The Regulation of U.S. Financial Markets: Forms and Failures” should be a topic on everyone’s mind these days.
Hale Sturges will investigate the writings of Baudelaire, and Barbara Lloyd will lead a course on Sicilian writers this semester. Going to www.beaconhillseminars.org will highlight 15 more amazing courses on opera, literature, religion, politics and science. Interested parties are encouraged come to the Kick-Off event at King’s Chapel, 64 Beacon St., on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 5:30 p.m., and meet all the wonderful group leaders, hear them describe the upcoming semester’s treasures, meet new friends and catch up with old ones. There will be information about the Book Sale that will take place on Sunday, Sept. 20, and why BHS needs lots of gently loved books and CD’s to be donated.
Check the BHS Web site (www.beaconhillseminars.org) and this paper for more information on future programming that represents the essence of Beacon Hill Seminars - fostering friendship and community, encouraging curious minds and enlivening conversation about everything that matters.

Judy Kermis Blotnick is the former executive director of Beacon Hill Seminars and currently serves on its volunteer board of directors.

The death of Senator Kennedy

The death of Senator Edward Kennedy was a tragedy of the first order for Massachusetts. His death was our demise in the Senate, and in Washington, where Massachusetts held a very special position from year to year when budget time arrived. Senator Kennedy’s death ends our privileged place in the nation’s capital. No matter who his successor is, we will never know in our lifetime another senator who could strongarm the national government to do as he wanted. Senator Kennedy’s impact on the national government, his thoughts on foreign policy, his beliefs about prejudice being eradicated and discrimination put to an end – well – they won’t be matched by his successor. His successor is doomed to the place held by all those following in the footsteps of legends. It is, frankly, a space nearly impossible to occupy as you are always being compared with what and who came before. Even another Kennedy taking over where Edward Kennedy left off will fall short of the late senator’s ability to create legislation and to follow it through to passage. Another Kennedy will find it frustrating to begin anew at a task the late senator had mastered during more than 40 years in the senate. Massachusetts faces a brave new world without Senator Kennedy. In politics, where everything done and everything not done is about quid pro quo, Kennedy’s absence on the floor of the Senate will be hugely missed. No one in the Senate is indispensable. The Senate goes on even as the old guard dies off. But Senator Kennedy was indispensable to us, to the people of Massachusetts. His death is a sad reminder to us all that nothing remains the same forever. That leaders come and leaders go but the institution remains. Senator Kennedy will be sorely missed – and we will realize this in the days and months to follow.