Steve Parker is a 1967 graduate of Princeton University, majoring in history, and has a master’s degree in American history from the University of Michigan (1969). From graduate school, Steve was drafted into the U.S. Army. He served a year in Vietnam (1970) where he received a direct field commission as a lieutenant in the Intelligence Branch. Following Army service, Steve attended Boston College Law School on the GI bill, graduating in 1975.
Following law school, Steve served one year as law clerk to Federal District Court Judge Frank J. Murray in Boston. Steve worked for the next 25 years at two Boston firms, Herrick & Smith and Mintz Levin, specializing in employee benefits (ERISA) and executive compensation and related corporate and tax matters. In 2001, Steve and his partner, Carol Brown, started a small law firm specializing in these matters. The firm is still in existence under the name Parker, Brown, Macaulay & Sheerin, P.C.
In 2008, Steve switched careers and became a teacher at Cushing Academy, an independent high school in Ashburnham, MA. Returning to history, Steve taught courses in U.S. and world history, U.S. government, and economics. Continuing his interest in history following retirement from Cushing in 2016, Steve is taking courses and planning to teach one or two at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Tufts University.
Steve is a volunteer at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate at Columbia Point in Boston where he typically guides visiting school and other groups. He also sings with a “hospice choir,” usually with eight to ten other singers at local nursing homes and hospice facilities, as well as singing in a church choir in Winchester.
Steve’s greatest accomplishment in law school was dating and subsequently marrying his classmate Kathy, who is also an Access to Justice Fellow this year. They reside in Winchester and have two grown sons and two young grandsons.
Steve will be using his Access to Justice Fellowship to support Veterans Legal Services (VLS) in Boston and other locations. Steve has been volunteering with VLS since January, providing support for periodic legal clinics at the Bedford, MA Veterans Administration Medical Center. During his fellowship year, Steve will continue this work with VLS at Bedford and will supervise a similar monthly legal clinic at the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home. These clinics primarily involve interviewing veterans to assess their legal needs in order to make appropriate referrals to private attorneys who have volunteered to represent veterans on a pro bono basis. In addition, Steve is providing actual legal representation of one veteran currently, involving a debt issue, and expects to expand his work with individual veterans in matters involving discharge upgrades and other legal issues. Finally, Steve will help VLS with various special projects as the need arises in the course of the year. VLS promotes self-sufficiency, stability, and financial security for veterans in Massachusetts through comprehensive and accessible legal services.