AGAWAM — Mayor Christopher Johnson announced that he recently appointed Christopher Cappucci as the new city solicitor for Agawam.
Attorney Cappucci brings with him a solid background in law, policy and government relations and calls the new role a dream come true.
“I’m loving it so far. It’s a bit of a change from my previous job. It’s definitely different than the type of legal issues I encountered in the district attorney’s office but I learn something new every day,” Cappucci said.
Cappucci served as an assistant district attorney in the Hampden District Attorney’s Office for the last two years which was preceded by several years with a former state Rep. Paul Mark as his research and staff director.
Cappucci received his law degree from the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth and was awarded the Public Interest Law Fellowship.
“I worked alongside municipalities for a very long time and so this is sort of a dream come true if you will. Working with municipalities and learning the ins and outs of municipal law is why I went to law school in the first place and motivated me to attend law school,” he said.
Solicitors work on a town or city’s legal issues, he said. They also make sure that a mayor’s or departmental policies, as well as the municipality’s decisions, stay compliant to the law.
“It’s very exciting stuff. It’s different from the criminal world where I only dealt with criminal law and this one, I deal with contracts and personal injury and labor law and things of that nature so it’s definitely a challenge, but I am enjoying it,” Cappucci said.
Luckily, Cappucci said the town has been “pretty blessed” so far with no major crisis involving the town and the only changes he has faced so far is learning a new area of law.
He explained, “In a way, there’s nothing that I wasn’t used to either in criminal or when I worked in the Legislature. The government is a pretty large entity and so at any given moment you could be learning something new or researching something you never looked into before so I guess some of the challenges have been knowing where to start.”
Cappucci said the transition has also been easy because Johnson, Town Clerk Vincent Gioscia and another town employee were former solicitors who offer a wealth of guidance.
Johnson is excited to welcome Cappucci to the town of Agawam.
He said, “Chris comes highly recommended by Hampden County District Attorney, Anthony Gulluni. He possesses a great combination of legal, as well as governmental, experience. I look forward to working with Chris on the legal challenges that face our community.”
Cappucci assumes the position vacated by attorney Stephen Buoniconti, who left to work as the Solicitor for Springfield, and wanted to give a message to residents and employees in Agawam.
Cappucci said, “For the town employees and residents of Agawam, I am very honored to be given this opportunity. This is the area of law that I really aspired to practice. For the people in Agawam, you get a city solicitor that’s very excited to learn more about the town of Agawam itself but also to excel in this role and build upon the success of the previous city solicitors as well.”
