Friends, advisors & committees

Ben Stern is a partner in Nutter’s Litigation Department. He focuses his practice on intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets) and has extensive trial experience representing multinational and entrepreneurial companies in federal and state courts nationwide, as in contested administrative proceedings. Ben combines his courtroom experience with knowledge of complex technologies that allows him to translate sophisticated subject matter into understandable concepts for judges and juries. He is also on the boards of Crossroads, a non-profit empowering young people to unlock their potential and positively impact the world. Each year, Crossroads engages over 1,000 young people in summer and school-year programming. He is also on the board of the Brookline Innovation Fund, a nonprofit that provides grants for Brookline High School faculty and administrators to develop new courses and programs that are innovative, interdisciplinary, and forward-thinking  Ben and his wife, Karen, live in Brookline Village with their three boys. He enjoys coaching his children in sports and participating in their activities.

Craig Harsfield works with individuals, families, and small businesses advising them on investment, retirement, and risk mitigation strategies. He specializes in designing tailored long term care solutions for seniors and their families, especially those experiencing transitional needs due to Alzheimer’s and Early Onset Dementia. Craig has a proven track record throughout his 15+ years in the financial services industry, and continues to advise hundreds of clients, in making smart decisions about their investments so they can seek to maximize their financial growth and work towards creating more certainty for their future. He received his business degree from Babson College and holds the designations of Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and Certified Long Term Care Planner. He is involved with and serves on numerous non-profit boards including serving as a past President of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce. Craig lives in Brookline with his wife and their two young children. Saying Craig is an avid Boston sports fan would be an understatement. In his free time he enjoys an active lifestyle including, coaching various Brookline youth sports teams, traveling and spending parts of his summers on Cape Cod and the Martha’s Vineyard.

Jacob Walters is an attorney who has been practicing in Brookline since 1984. Jacob was a partner with Goldenberg & Walters from 2001-2011, then a partner with Walters, Shannon & Jensen, who had offices in Brookline Village. A graduate of DePaul Law School (1975), Jacob has appeared numerous times before the Brookline Zoning Board of Appeals on behalf of residential and commercial property owners and before the Brookline Select Board on behalf of restaurant owners seeking food and alcohol licenses. Jacob has also represented buyers, sellers and mortgage lenders in residential real estate transactions, and additionally handles civil litigation in the District and Superior Courts of the Commonwealth. Jacob and his wife Laura have lived in Brookline since 1979. Their children Christopher and Leah are both graduates of Brookline High School.

Keith M. Pauletti is the Vice President of the Boston Metro Branches of HarborOne Bank. In this role, he leads the bank’s engagement in the market and surrounding communities. Keith comes to HarborOne Bank with over 15 years of experience in the banking industry. Prior to joining HarborOne Bank, he served as the Regional Manager, Vice President at Century Bank’s East region where he managed 14 branch locations and 75 employees. He also participated in quarterly profit-vision meetings, presenting branch efficiency ratios and performance, and provided direction to teams working in lending, business banking, investments and human resources.

Robert Donnelly serves as a personal risk manager for high net worth individuals and families. In this capacity he delivers tailored risk management solutions that protect the wealth and physical assets of his clients, while freeing them of the administrative burdens associated with policy issuance and billing. Robert joined Marsh USA Inc. as Office Head, Private Client Services in 2008 bringing with him more than twenty-four years of insurance industry experience. The Private Client Services division of Marsh has national capabilities and expertise with twenty-seven locations and 350 licensed professionals in all fifty states. Robert is a graduate of Villanova University, earned his MBA at New York University and successfully completed the Executive Program in Strategic Sales Management at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He resides with his wife and daughters in Brookline, where he often walks with his family to Fenway Park to catch a game. Robert is the vice chair of the professional advisors committee.

Shannon McAllister is a Senior Vice President at UBS Private Wealth Management where she employs 20+ years of banking and wealth planning experience to provide financial advice to individuals and business leaders. She is responsible for developing and overseeing every detail of successful client relationships and offers highly sophisticated goals-based financial advice on all aspects of her clients’ balance sheet. Prior to joining the Private Wealth division of UBS/Boston, Shannon served as a Managing Director at First Republic, Private Banker and team lead at JPMorgan, and as a Wealth Advisor at Athena Capital LLC and The RINET Company, both independent multi-family offices, and began her career as a Financial Advisor with Ayco / Goldman Sachs in New York.

Shannon was Vice Chair of the USGA US Open 2022. She is an active fundraiser for several organizations including the Ireland Funds, the Esplanade Association, Girls on the Run, American Cancer Society, and is involved with the Boston Estate Planning Council, CREW, NAIOP, and REFA among other professional associations.  Shannon graduated magna cum laude from Union College with a double major in Mathematics and Managerial Economics, and was elected to Omicron Delta Epsilon, International Honors Society in Economics.  She went on to receive her M.B.A. at Union Graduate College. Shannon holds current NASD Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Shannon is an avid golfer and pickle player, and enjoys running, yoga and time with family.

Steven E. Gurdin is a partner at Fitch Law Partners LLP (“Fitch”).  Steven’s civil litigation practice is concentrated in the areas of complex Family Law and Probate and Estate Litigation. Steven has almost 25 years of experience as a practicing attorney.  He has served as Co-Chair of the Family Law Section of the Boston Bar Association and Co-Chair of the Fiduciary Litigation Committee of the Trusts and Estates Section of the Boston Bar Association. Steven is also an active member of the Family and Probate Law Sections of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Estate Planning Council and the New England Advisory Board of the American Academy of Certified Financial Litigators – AACFL.  He is recognized as a leader in the Massachusetts legal community, consistently named a top lawyer and a “top volunteering individual”.  Steven is a 1990 graduate of Emory University (B.A.) and a 1994 graduate of Albany Law School of Union University (J.D.).  He now lives in Brookline with his wife, Lisa and their three children (all of whom attend the Brookline Public Schools).  Steven has been a Brookline resident for 16 years.

Urban Larson is a seasoned investor who is in the process of launching his own independent investment firm, White Pine Advisory. Urban has worked around the globe for various firms, including five years spent in London and six in Mexico City. He was most recently employed by Standish Mellon Asset Management in Boston. Urban has expertise in emerging markets and has earned his professional certification in sustainable investing. Urban is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French, and conversant in other languages. He earned his MBA from HEC in France, and has a BA from the University of Chicago. Urban currently chairs the Board of Investment of First Unitarian Univeralist Society in Newton and is a member of the investment committees of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry and Urban Edge, both in Roxbury. Urban and his family have lived in Brookline since 2012, and he is very interested in BCF and the BCF PAC, as he has been looking for a way to become more involved in Brookline and Brookline’s issues and needs.