Joseph D. Feaster, Jr.

Recognized as a 2023 Top Lawyer by Boston Magazine

Joseph D. Feaster, Jr.

Joseph D. Feaster, Jr., Counsel at Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest & Garner, P.C., has established himself during his more than 48-year legal career as one of the deans of the Boston bar. Since his time as the Chair of the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal, Feaster has become one of the City’s most prominent development and permitting attorneys. His practice also encompasses general estate and licensing, corporate, litigation, employment and labor law, and probate.

Feaster practiced at McKenzie & Associates, P.C. and at Wynn & Wynn, P.C. before joining Dain Torpy. Feaster is also President of Feaster Enterprises, a strategic planning, organizational development, and community outreach consulting firm. He currently serves as the court-appointed Receiver for the Edgar P. Benjamin nursing home.

Additionally, Feaster previously served as the court-appointed Receiver for Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center for 5 years, as the Interim Town Manager of the Town of Stoughton, as President of the Massachusetts Community and Banking Council (MCBC), Acting Director of Real Estate for the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Interim Administrator of the Boston Housing Authority (one of the largest public housing authorities in the country), Assistant Secretary and General Counsel in the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Administration and Finance, Associate Counsel in Prudential Insurance Company’s Northeast Home Office, and as an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board’s Boston Regional Office.

Feaster’s professional affiliations are numerous, as his expertise is sought within the City of Boston and nationally. These affiliations and service include serving as a mediator for the Suffolk County (MA) Superior Court Mediation program, as a registered lobbyist in Massachusetts, and, as noted, as chairman and member of the City of Boston Board of Appeal. He serves as an Executive Committee member of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, Inc. (MAMH), and as an Advisory Board Member of the Samaritan, Inc. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts (ULEM); President of the Boston Branch NAACP, as Vice Chairman and board member of Neighborhood Health Plan (NHP), as Speaker of the House of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), as a board member of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (MLCHC), as a board member of Dimock Community Health Center, which tenure included serving as board chairman and as the Center’s Interim President, and on the Executive Council of the Massachusetts AARP.

Feaster is a former board member of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, former board member of the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Boston, a gubernatorial appointee to the Commonwealth’s Workforce Investment Board, past president of Northeastern University School of Law Alumni Association, past president of Northeastern University School of Law Black American Law Student Association (BALSA); past president of Combined Boston BALSA, past chairman of the Boston Enhanced Enterprise Community Advisory Board, and past co-chair of the Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition.

Feaster previously served as the Senior Vice President of Victory Group, a government and community relations firm, as an adjunct professor in Northeastern University’s Master of Public Administration program, and as a research associate at the William Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Feaster received his Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law. He has also completed programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate Development and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.