A Lawyer Who Loves His Job: Prosecutor Gerard Leone
More a career prosecutor than a politician, Gerard T. Leone Jr., the Middlesex district attorney in Massachusetts, keeps a low profile even as his office takes on big cases. Its 250 lawyers handle some 40,000 cases annually. Their role, he says, is to serve as advocates for those who can’t speak for themselves.
“There’s no better job than this one,” the 45-year-old tells the Boston Globe, not long after his staff won another high-profile prosecution in the murder case against Neil Entwistle.
Respected by practitioners for his trial skills—Leone’s closing argument in the murder trial of British au pair Louise Woodward was as good as he’s ever heard, says his predecessor in the district attorney’s office, Thomas Reilly—Leone is also respected for his compassion and integrity, the newspaper recounts.
There are cases that his office doesn’t prosecute, which can be cause for criticism. But “we’re trusted by the public to prosecute only those cases that are dictated by the facts and the law,” Leone says.
