Robert W. Harnais is the Massachusetts Bar Association's first Hispanic president through 2016. Harnais, during his presidency, plans to promote a return to civility in the profession with a sense of camaraderie statewide, while also continuing the MBA’s advocacy for access to justice and criminal justice reform, including the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes.
A general practitioner with Mahoney & Harnais in Quincy, MA Harnais has volunteered his service to the MBA for many years, serving as an officer and as a member of the MBA’s Executive Management Board and House of Delegates. He has also served as co-chair of the MBA’s Crime Lab Task Force and chair of the MBA’s Diversity Task Force.
Harnais is a past president of the Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys (MAHA) and a past regional president of the Hispanic Bar Association, and remains highly involved with both organizations. In 2014, MAHA honored Harnais with it’s Leadership Award for his dedication to the Hispanic Bar. That same year he received the Quincy Bar Association’s Alfred P. Malaney Award, commonly referred to as the “Man of the Year Award”, for distinguished legal services. Harnais is also a past recipient of the Norfolk County Bar Association Pro Bono Award (2011). Harnais has served on the Race and Ethnic Advisory Board for the Massachusetts courts since 2007.
Harnais received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1984 and graduated from New England Law, Boston in 1989. A former athlete, Harnais played football for UMASS Boston and later semi-professionally for the Eastern Football League (EFL). He coached football for 15 years and still enjoys being a football official in his free time. Harnais is a native of Braintree, Massachusetts, where he resides with his wife Leslie. Harnais has four children, and is also a member of the Braintree Planning Board.
