Isaac Borenstein

The Hon. Isaac Borenstein (ret.) joined the Boston law firm of Rudolph Friedmann LLP as a partner on September 15, 2008, after almost 16 years as an associate justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and six years as a judge of the Lawrence District Court.  He specializes in all areas of civil litigation and criminal defense. In addition, he handles appellate work, mediation, arbitration and consults with individuals, institutions and attorneys in the general practice of law.

Judge Borenstein has received several awards for excellence on the bench and for public service. He taught full time at New England School of Law in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure and trial advocacy, and in the Clinical Program at Harvard Law School with an emphasis on civil litigation. Since 1985, he has been a part-time faculty member at Northeastern University School of Law, where his courses have included evidence, administrative law, torts, criminal law and procedure, as well as civil and criminal trial practice. In the academic setting, Judge Borenstein has also received several awards. The law school classes of 1992, 1998 and 2000 at Northeastern elected him faculty speaker at their graduation ceremonies, the only time a part-time professor had been so honored. The 2007 graduating class at Suffolk Law School voted him the Cornelius J. Moynihan Award for Teaching Excellence, also the first time an adjunct professor received this honor. Judge Borenstein has been active in the public sector for many years, including service on a variety of boards and committees.

Previously, Judge Borenstein served as a staff attorney at the Roxbury Defenders Committee, Inc. (1977-1979), as a legal intern and assistant public defender in the Dade County Public Defender’s Office in Miami, Florida (1976), and as a staff attorney and clinical instructor at the Legal Services Institute (now the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center) of Harvard Law School in Jamaica Plain, Mass. (1979-1982).  As an experienced trial attorney in the public and private sectors, he handled a broad range of civil and criminal matters in state and federal court.