Jennifer Sunderland brings a collaborative and client-centered approach to her legal practice in which she has counseled hundreds of clients over her nearly 18 years of practice. She focuses her practice on criminal defense but also has broad experience representing clients in workplace disputes and assisting with internal investigations.

She began her career with judicial clerkships in the Massachusetts Superior Court and the Supreme Judicial Court. Like Attorney Peachy, she represented her first clients as a public defender in the District and Superior Courts in Brockton, Massachusetts. She also worked for three boutique law firms in Boston handling a variety of civil litigation matters with a focus on employment law. She founded a firm with a partner in 2020 focusing primarily on criminal defense.

She is a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel and certified to represent clients in Federal Court in Massachusetts. She is also a Superior-Court certified attorney handling serious felony matters in Massachusetts state court.

Attorney Sunderland is deeply involved in the Massachusetts criminal defense community. She serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and is currently President-Elect of the Board of Directors. Her charitable involvement includes pro bono representation of a client through the New England Innocence Project.

In addition to her courtroom practice, Attorney Sunderland has served as a Lecturer on Law at New England Law | Boston, where she has taught Criminal Procedure, Criminal Advocacy, Client Counseling, and Civil Rights to upper-level law students.

Bar Admissions

Massachusetts

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Education

New England School of Law, J.D.

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.A.

Accomplishments

Negotiated favorable dispositions in multiple first and second degree murder cases where clients were facing life sentences without possibility of parole to lesser offense of manslaughter

Advocated at sentencing hearing for client to avoid Federal prison sentence for narcotics offense

Litigated multiple motions to suppress in Massachusetts state court resulting in dismissals of firearms offenses where clients were facing minimum mandatory sentences of incarceration

Negotiated dismissal of sex offenses against client charged in Massachusetts state court

Obtained not guilty verdicts in trials for clients in District and Superior courts

Argued successful appeal at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which raised question of first impression regarding retroactivity of statute regarding drugs in a school zone

Professional Activities

President-Elect, Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL)

Board Member, Suffolk Lawyers for Justice, Inc.