Ellwood, Stephen P.

Stephen Oleskey is a partner in the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department, and a member of the Business Trial Group. He joined the firm in 1968 when he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. Mr. Oleskey focuses his practice on complex civil litigation and appellate matters, with a particular emphasis on real estate related litigation.

Practice

Mr. Oleskey has represented a wide range of corporations, partnerships, joint ventures and individuals in civil jury and jury-waived trials, arbitrations and mediations in Massachusetts state and federal courts and in many other jurisdictions. He has lectured widely on these topics. Mr. Oleskey has argued before the US Supreme Court, as well as before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; the Massachusetts Appeals Court; the New Hampshire Supreme Court; the US Tax Court, the US Court of Claims, and the District of Columbia, First, Third and Ninth Circuit US Courts of Appeals.

Significant litigation representations have included The Gale Companies, Stockbridge Real Estate Fund, Mondev International, Equity Office Properties, New England Life Insurance Company, Gerald D. Hines Interests, Sears Roebuck, Silverleaf Resorts, Inc., and Suez North America.

In 1987 and 1988, Mr. Oleskey served as Massachusetts Deputy Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection Bureau. In that capacity, he supervised 140 attorneys, investigators, paralegals and support personnel in the Antitrust, Civil Rights, Consumer Protection, Environmental Protection, Insurance, Public Charities, Utilities, Nuclear Safety and Special Litigation (asbestos removal claims) Divisions. He was responsible for all civil litigation and enforcement proceedings in the Bureau.

Professional Activities

Mr. Oleskey has a forty-year commitment to pro bono legal work. In recognition of this commitment, the American Bar Association awarded him the 2007 Pro Bono Publico Award for his outstanding pro bono work, both in his individual practice and as an advocate for pro bono services at WilmerHale and throughout the legal community.

Mr. Oleskey has been co-lead counsel since 2004 in the case of Boumediene v. Bush, a federal habeas corpus suit challenging the imprisonment of six men from Bosnia in Guantanamo Bay since January 2002 without charge or trial. The United States Supreme Court ruled on June 12, 2008 that the Guantanamo Bay detainees are constitutionally entitled to habeas corpus. Following that decision and the resulting first-ever Guantanamo habeas trial, a federal court judge ordered five of the six men released immediately.

In 2004, WilmerHale awarded him its John H. Pickering Award for Pro Bono Activities for his “exemplary dedication to the provision of pro bono publico legal services.”

He also has received the Boston Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award “for exemplary commitment to public service and outstanding advocacy on behalf of low-income citizens of Massachusetts,” and the Greater Boston Legal Services’ Dow-Gardner-Landrum Award “for outstanding commitment to legal services for the poor.”

A past director and president of the Greater Boston Legal Services, Mr. Oleskey is also a past director and chairman of the board of the Boston Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project. He was appointed to the board of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation in 1995 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and was chair from 2003 to 2005. He served from 1998 to 2008 as chairman of the Massachusetts Equal Justice Coalition. He presently chairs the Board of Directors of Pact, Inc., an international sustainable development NGO headquartered in Washington, DC with programs in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

Mr. Oleskey also served on the national board and as general counsel to the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (now Legal Momentum), the preeminent national legal advocacy and education entity for women’s rights, from 1995 to 2003.

Mr. Oleskey is a member of the American, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations. He is a fellow of the American and Boston Bar Foundations and has served as an elected council (board) member of the Boston Bar Association. A trained and certified mediator, he is also a member of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, located in New York City.

Honors and Awards

• Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2011 and 2012 editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law.
• Recognized as a Massachusetts leader in the Litigation:General Commercial field in the 2010 and 2011 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business
• Named a "Lawyer of the Year" by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in November 2008
• Recipient of the Community Dispute Settlement Center's 2008 Community Peacemaker Award
• Recipient of the 2007 Pro Bono Publico Award by the American Bar Association
• Named "Alumnus of the Month" for December 2007 by New York University School of Law
• Recipient of the Boston Bar Association's 2007 President's Award for his continued representation of pro bono clients detained at Guantanamo Bay  
• Recipient of the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services' Distinguished Leadership Award for "his remarkable contributions to the legal profession, and most especially for his recent advocacy work on behalf of six clients...detained without charges for more than three years at Guantanamo Bay."  
• Named a "New England Super Lawyer" (formerly "Massachusetts Super Lawyer") in civil litigation defense in the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 
• Named a "Distinguished Alumnus" for his professional and public service achievements by his alma mater, Wesleyan University, in 1999

Speaking Engagements

• Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company of Boston (2011)
• 2010 Frank M. Coffin Lecture on Law and Public Service