Michael Altman

Before he retired, Michael Altman was a partner at three different law firms in Boston for 25 years. He specialized in high profile litigation cases both criminal and civil. For 15 years he was on the law faculty at Arizona State University where he founded clinics for low income Yaqui and Chicano clients. He also taught various criminal, constitutional law, and litigation courses. Michael began his career at the Boston Legal Assistance Project (BLAP) in Roxbury where he litigated every conceivable education issue in federal court.

In 2007, Lawyers Weekly and the Boston Bar selected Michael as one of the top ten lawyers in Massachusetts for his work in a wrongful death case in which he obtained a $15 million dollar verdict against a Winchester doctor who strangled his doctor girlfriend. Another noteworthy case was the AZ Sanctuary case, an eight month long criminal jury trial, in which Michael was defense counsel. The 1986 case involved various criminal charges brought against Priests, Nuns, and Ministers who smuggled Central Americans into the United States to be protected in sanctuary churches and cities throughout the country.

Michael graduated from Bowdoin College and then attended B.C. Law School. After clerking in the Southern District of New York, he attended Harvard Law School and received an LLM degree.

As an Access to Justice Fellow, Michael will be working with attorneys at BLAP (now called Greater Boston Legal Services or GBLS), as well as with Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) to help it focus on the most pressing issues of the day. The GBLS mission is to provide free legal assistance to as many low-income families as possible to help them secure some of the most basic necessities of life. JALSA is a member-based organization, inspired by Jewish teachings and values, dedicated to being a strong, progressive, inter-generational voice for social and economic justice, civil rights, and constitutional liberties.