Committee for Public Counsel Services Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti ’83

Chief Counsel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Anthony Benedetti does his best to help and aid the public. Being a Boston Latin School alumni from West Roxbury, Anthony understood that everyone should get a chance at fair representation inside what should be a fair system. He attended Boston College and Suffolk University Law School where after he found himself passionate to become a public defense lawyer for CPCS. He was able to experience internships at a young age, one at the Senate House which made him see how unfair the system really was. After that, he took it upon himself to make and see a change. Helping people who were normally judged and mistreated made him passionate for the law. He told the students, ‘connecting with the clients made me emotionally invested in their case’. Another thing he is passionate about is catching up from the pandemic. As is evident in many professions, there is a backlog due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but regarding legal work, this means people awaiting trial could now be facing longer time in prison, and Anthony finds it important to focus on prison reform. He is focused on the racial injustice, especially the fact that people of color — specifically Latino and Latinx people — get longer sentences and make up a larger proportion of Massachusetts prisons than would be statistically expected. Being Chief Counsel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services means that Benedetti deals daily with many issues and has many responsibilities. One he discussed was the Innocence Project, where CPCS workers try to help people free incarcerated individuals who might be innocent, and juvenile work, where he helps parents and their children. Overall, Anthony uses his position to look over and help all sections of CPCS, being a fundamental part of the legal system in Massachusetts. His input was crucial for the fellows to see another part of the system, and learn from his experience.