BR&G Honored for 50-year ACCGS Membership

April 2011

The Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) recognized BR&G for the firm’s 50 years of chamber membership at the ACCGS’s April 6 Business@Breakfast event.

The morning’s program traced BR&G’s growth since the 1920s, including its original office at the Five Cent Savings Bank at the corner of Court and Main Streets in Springfield to its current location down the street in Tower Square.

Also mentioned were the firm’s long-standing relationships within the community and its attorneys’ involvement as legal counselors, board members, volunteers and supporters in dozens of organizations and institutions. Recent BR&G successes were highlighted, including the firm’s work in advising long-time client Baystate Health on its $300 million "Hospital of the Future" construction project, obtaining over $6 million in municipal and state tax incentives for Smith & Wesson and, in an ongoing effort, recovering millions of dollars for over a dozen local investors whose funds were misinvested or stolen from person and retirement accounts.

Joining Executive Committee Chairman Sandy Dibble and several of his colleagues at the breakfast was Bob Gelinas, who joined the firm in 1957—four years before the firm became a member of the ACCGS.

Standing (left to right): Vanessa Smith, George Adams, Sandy Dibble, Bob Gelinas, Mary Jo Kennedy, Kathy Bernardo and Liz Southerland. Seated (left to right): Kelly McCarthy, Dave Parke, Mark Cress and Scott Foster.