Dedicated juvenile attorney honored at 5K

LYNN – Lynne O’Connell had many kids, all of whom had run-ins with the criminal justice system.But O’Connell wasn’t a bad mother. Friends, family and strangers gathered on Thanksgiving to run around Flax Pond and remember O’Connell as a friend and as a really good juvenile attorney.”She was probably the best attorney I’ve ever seen in juvenile court, one of those people who would always work for the best opportunity for the client,” said Beth Moody, a friend of O’Connell’s and an assistant clerk magistrate at the Lynn Juvenile Court. “It didn’t matter what was going on with the kid – if you called her and said, I need some help, she would be there. ? She had heart and she cared.”Approximately 225 runners of all ages gathered at Rolly’s Tavern on Thanksgiving morning to remember O’Connell, who died in March 2011, just days after being diagnosed with cancer. O’Connell had no children of her own. But O’Connell – who attended law school in her 40s after years in the restaurant business – quickly earned a reputation among attorneys, court workers and clients as a tireless advocate for the children she represented as a public defender and private attorney in the juvenile court system for more than 15 years.”A lot of attorneys take juvenile stuff, district court stuff, probate court; she was a juvenile attorney, that’s what she did, that’s what she focused on, that was her skill and her passion,” Moody recalled. “She was a juvenile court attorney and loved it.”And the race on Thanksgiving continued O’Connell’s work.The 5-kilometer race began in Wyoma Square and meandered around Flax Pond, along the route O’Connell, an avid runner, skiier and cyclist, used to run every morning. Registration fees went to the Lynne’s Kids, a nonprofit established by friends in O’Connell’s memory that provides money to juvenile clients in need.It was the third year the nonprofit has held the race, and it is one of the group’s biggest events.DeLeo and several other friends of O’Connell’s said Thanksgiving was a particularly busy day for O’Connell. She would typically spend Thanksgiving morning visiting clients or former clients who didn’t have family with whom to share the holiday, according to friends. Friends also recalled how many of these clients and families attended O’Connell’s funeral and spoke of the help O’Connell offered not just as an attorney but as a friend.So that O’Connell’s friends and even strangers could gather in her memory and help those same kids seemed appropriate.”What better time to do it than Thanksgiving, when friends and family can get together for a few hours in the morning before going to dinner,” said Debbie DeLeo, a longtime friend of O’Connell’s and one of the nonprofit board members.”That this fundraiser helps the kids she worked with keeps the memory alive,” said Colleen O’Leary, an assistant chief probation officer at juvenile court and a friend of O’Connell’s.And although the day was chilly, the spirit of Thanksgiving (and some spirits from Rolly’s Tavern) and spirit of volunteering combined with happy memories to thaw fingers and the sweat that seemed to freeze as soon as runners passed the finish line.”She did a lot of good things for kids,” Mark Smith, O’Connell’s nephew, said simply.”She was so kind and so nice, I don’t think you could find anyone who had a bad thing to say about her,” said attorney Susanna Chilnick, who was volunteering by photographing the event. “You could be on the other side of her in the courthouse and you would just love her to death. She was so good.”