Press Release  AG Healey Appoints New Leaders of Consumer Protection, Civil Rights and Environmental Divisions

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today announced major staff appointments to focus attention on environmental, consumer protection, and civil rights priorities within the office.

“Our office’s work is driven by the extensive expertise of our attorneys and staff. These new appointments to our team will help us fight on behalf of the people of Massachusetts,” AG Healey said. “Whether it’s environmental protection, civil rights, consumer issues, or a host of other priorities, we are committed to getting results for the residents of this state.”

Max Weinstein will serve as Chief of the Consumer Protection Division. Weinstein will join the Attorney General’s Office following his role as Senior Clinical Instructor and Lecturer at Law at Harvard Law School. Working as part of the Predatory Lending/Consumer Protection Clinic, Weinstein litigated consumer protection claims on behalf of low-income consumers across the Commonwealth and practiced in areas including mortgage origination and servicing, foreclosure, and student loan collection and servicing. Prior to his work at Harvard, Weinstein was a Skadden Fellow at Brooklyn Legal Services, Corporation A, in East New York. In 2013, Weinstein was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to the Foreclosure Impacts Task Force. A graduate of Yale Law School, the University of Cambridge, and Williams College, Weinstein is a resident of Jamaica Plain.

Shennan Kavanagh will serve as Deputy Division Chief of the Consumer Protection Division.  Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office, Kavanagh was one of the founding partners of Klein Kavanagh Costello, LLP, a litigation firm specializing in consumer class actions and litigation, with a particular focus on unfair banking and debt collection practices, civil rights, and products liability. Kavanagh also specialized in consumer class actions with a focus on consumer financial services litigation at Roddy Klein & Ryan. Her achievements include multi-million dollar settlements, successful appellate advocacy and appointments as lead class counsel in federal courts across the country, but she is proudest of successfully representing individual homeowners and preventing foreclosures. Before law school, Kavanagh taught English as a Second Language in a rural high school in Guinea, West Africa as a member of the U.S. Peace Corps. Kavanagh is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School and the University of Vermont. She resides in Cambridge.

Andrea Kramer will serve as Chief of the Civil Rights Division. Kramer worked as an attorney at Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP and Sullivan Weinstein & McQuay LLC since 1999, successfully litigating cases with a focus on employment law, contract disputes, discrimination, and noncompetition agreements. Kramer’s private practice experience includes many matters before federal and state courts, as well the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Kramer served as the President of the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association from 2012-2013, and was named one of the Top Women in the Law by Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly in 2013. A long-time adjunct professor or lecturer at several universities, Kramer has most recently instructed a first-year course on legal problem solving and practical lawyering at Harvard Law School, and has previously taught sex discrimination law at Brandeis University. A Cambridge resident, Kramer is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Wellesley College.

Genevieve Nadeau will serve as Deputy Division Chief of the Civil Rights Division. Nadeau has served in the Attorney General’s Office since 2012 as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division. Over the course of her tenure at the Attorney General’s Office, Nadeau has investigated and litigated enforcement actions under state and federal anti-discrimination laws that have greatly improved services for consumers with disabilities, blocked racially motivated discrimination and harassment, and prohibited the unauthorized practice of immigration law and other widespread fraud. Nadeau has also played a lead role in developing amicus briefs for cases regarding human trafficking, equal marriage rights, and disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act, and served as a NAAG Supreme Court Fellow in 2014. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Nadeau served in the General Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as an associate at two well-respected national law firms. A Boston resident, Nadeau is a graduate of Stanford Law School and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Christophe Courchesne will serve asChief of the Environmental Protection Division. Courchesne will join the Attorney General’s Office following his role as a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation's New Hampshire office where he focused on advocacy and litigation to fight climate change and advance clean energy in New Hampshire and throughout New England. Prior to his work at the Conservation Law Foundation, Courchesne practiced environmental, energy, and land use law for more than five years as an associate at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston. Courchesne previously served as a law clerk at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for Justice Robert J. Cordy. He is an alum of the BBA's Public Interest Leadership Program, has served as the chair of the Grafton Planning Board, and was a charity runner for Casa Myrna in the 2013 and 2014 Boston Marathons. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Courchesne resides in East Kingston, New Hampshire.

###