In the News

Dr. Chanelle Diaz has won the 2026 Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility and its $25,000 prize. Speaking at the Lown Institute's annual conference, Attorney Zachary Lown connected Dr. Diaz’s work to Dr. Lown’s legacy:

“One way Dr. Lown mobilized people was by addressing not the political issues but the human ones. Dr. Diaz’s work meets the moment, and significantly, she brings that moral authority. Her focus on the health impacts of immigration detention on children employs that same emphasis on the most fundamental of issues, not political ones, but those of human dignity.”

The Boston Globe interviewed Boston criminal defense attorney Zachary Lown about the lack of oversight surrounding police use of confidential informants in Massachusetts. 

“The informant system is essentially a black box,” said defense lawyer Zachary Lown, whose client that day was a new father with no criminal record who fought the case for six years. “Police withhold informant files from the prosecution meaning that even the prosecutor is kept in the dark. It is the only area of our law where guilt or innocence is at stake that lacks any checks or balances.”

The Boston Globe spoke with Attorney Zachary Lown about delays in Massachusetts parole hearings following the Supreme Judicial Court's expansion of parole eligibility for emerging adults.

Zachary Lown, who represents Middlemiss, said the lawsuit should not be construed as an attack on an overburdened Parole Board.

“We need to get them more resources so more hearings can be held,” he said.

Lown represents Middlemiss, who he said takes full responsibility for killing a Lowell drug dealer in an attempted robbery in 2006, when Middlemiss was 20. Middlemiss now trains dogs and runs peer groups.

“He proved the SJC’s maxim that no judge can look at a child or an emerging adult and say they’re irreparably depraved,” Lown said.

A reporter from the Concord Bridge spoke to Attorney Zachary Lown about what happens when ICE refuses to give a person accused of a crime his or her day in state court. 

Criminal defense attorney Zachary Lown has represented clients who are simultaneously navigating the criminal and immigration court systems.

He isn’t representing Calderon Navarro but said the Constitution ensures that “everyone has the right to their day in court.” When someone gets stuck in ICE detention or deported without resolving a criminal case, he said, “all of those rights are violated.”

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly interviewed Boston criminal defense attorney Zachary Lown about prosecutors' ethical obligations when federal immigration enforcement interferes with state criminal proceedings.

Now that Summerville has laid down a marker, prosecutors will not be let off the hook so easily if similar circumstances unfold in other cases, suspects Boston criminal defense attorney Zachary P. Lown, who also attended the hearing.

“If there was any question as to whether the ADA’s office has an ethical obligation to report this or not, it is now crystal clear, and if they don’t, I think that the sanctions will be much more severe in the future,” he says.

WGHB interviewed Attorneys Zachary Lown and J. Connie Tran who brought the lawsuit for the women who came forward which challenges alleged sexual abuse and medical neglect at Massachusetts's women's prison.

Two former inmates at the only women’s prison in the state, Massachusetts Correctional Institution Framingham, filed a lawsuit Monday alleging sexual abuse by former guard Melvis Romero. Other defendants include the state Department of Correction, healthcare provider Wellpath and several employees of MCI Framingham.

Despite the station being within eyesight of the court, Lown said, the prosecutor could not go to the station and collect it, and instead had to summon officers to court to hand over the papers, thus earning the messenger a sizable chunk of overtime change.

“What this proves is that there’s a lot of fat on the system. There are a ton of resources that could be reinvested,” said Lown. “It’s a question of political will.”

Attorneys Zachary Lown and Bonnie Tenneriello responded in the Boston Globe to articles detailing criticism of the Bail Fund, an organization which posts bail for defendants accused, but not convited, of a crime who cannot afford their bail. 

"Everyone charged with a crime is protected by the presumption of innocence. The only legitimate purpose of bail is to determine an amount that will ensure a defendant comes back to court. Bail is not a tool to prejudge a defendant as guilty and jail that person until a trial."

The Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild fully supports the Massachusetts Bail Fund in its policy of posting all bails regardless of the charges. Bail means pretrial liberty for the well-to-do and pretrial incarceration for those with modest resources. We cannot allow prosecutors to use high bails to avoid a constitutional dangerousness hearing, and we cannot allow freedom to depend on wealth. Thanks to the incredible work of the bail fund, defendants are actually realizing the promise of being innocent until proven guilty, and our judges and prosecutors are being forced to adhere to the law.

Boston-based criminal defense attorney Zachary Lown spoke to the Boston Globe about how even minor criminal charges can impact a person's life. 

Zachary Lown, a criminal defense attorney who practices in Roxbury and Dorchester, said prosecutors in those courts already move to divert those charged with drug possession and petty crimes into treatment or alternative programs.

Dismissing cases outright would help defendants avoid the stigma of a criminal record, Lown said.

“It’s impossible to get a job with a criminal record . . . or get an apartment or a place to live. It’s a moral issue,” Lown said.

The Appeal, a publiction focused on the U.S. criminal legal system, spoke to defense attorney Zachary Lown about whehter Boston's district attorney is failing to live up to her promise to decline certain cases for prosecution. 

Over the three weeks, members of the group say they saw bail set in 16 cases. That concerns Zachary Lown, a defense attorney with Lown Law Firm in Boston. “Not only is it true that these cases are still being prosecuted,” he said, “but people are being put in jail without being convicted of any crime—for a crime the DA said they weren’t even going to prosecute.”

Judges routinely impose fines, court fees, and restitution costs on indigent defendants in Massachusetts. This guide and worksheet highlight relevant legal principles and are intended to help attorneys use the law to protect their clients from crushing court debt.

By Attorney Zachary Lown & Attorney Rebecca Kiley

“Whatever the pretense or tradition, Bannon’s invitation to Harvard normalizes racist, sexist, and homophobic ideas that are being promoted from the highest office in the land,” said organizer Zachary Lown, a Boston-based attorney who is not affiliated with Harvard. “This was a campaign that was largely built on racism and fear, and we don’t view that as a legitimate part of our public discussion.”