Steven H. Wright

Lawyer Steven H. Wright was born on September 8, 1956 in Buffalo, New York to Ledonia Smith Wright and Sylvester Martin Wright. Wright received his B.S. degree in business administration from East Carolina University in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1978 and his J.D. degree from the Boston College Law School in Newton, Massachusetts in 1981.

After graduating from the Boston College Law School, Wright served as a law clerk for the Massachusetts Superior Court before being hired as an assistant attorney general for the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General’s civil litigation bureau in 1982. In 1985, Wright moved to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, where he served as an assistant general counsel, before returning in 1987 to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office as chief of the industrial accident division in the civil litigation bureau. He was then promoted to chief of the trial division, deputy bureau chief, and assistant attorney general in 1989. In 1991, Wright was hired as a deputy counsel for New York Mayor David Dinkins, and then returned to Boston in 1994 to co-found the law firm of Chin, Wright & Branson, P.C. Wright then joined the law firm of Sherburne, Powers & Needham, P.C. in 1997 as a partner. Sherburne, Powers & Needham were then acquired by Holland & Knight LLP in 1999. Wright worked at Holland & Knight LLP for over twenty years. In 2019, Wright joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as its senior vice president and general counsel.

Wright served on numerous boards and committees including the Best Lawyers National Advisory Committee, the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, and the East Carolina University board of visitors. Wright also served as national chairperson of East Carolina University’s Ledonia S. Wright Cultural Center, director and executive committee member of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association. In the legal arena, Wright has been a member of the following bar associations: the American Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, and the National Bar Association. He has also served on several corporate boards including SBLI Mutual Insurance Company and Atrius Health.

Wright has received numerous honors including an Outstanding Counsel designation from the National Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section in 2009, an Outstanding Alumni Award from East Carolina University in 2011, an Outstanding African-American Role Model Award from the Boston Renaissance Charter School in 2010, the Good Guys Award from the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus in 2016, and the Cora T. Walker Award from the National Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section in 2021. He has also been featured in the following legal and business publications: Super Lawyer Magazine’s Corporate Counsel Edition in 2012 and the Boston Business Journal’s “Power 50” list in 2012 and 2014.

Steven H. Wright was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 13, 2023.