About Jerry Parisella
Jerry was born and raised in Beverly, went through the public school system and still lives and works here today. He is an attorney at Alexander & Femino in Beverly and Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Salem. His first job out of law school was with the City of Beverly Law Department. This combination of private and government experience gives Jerry a unique perspective on how the law affects ordinary citizens.
Jerry resides in Beverly with his wife Lisa and daughter Sophia, as well as stepson Chris, now attending Salem State University. Parisella is one of five children, who learned the value of honest, hard work from his late father Joe, a construction worker and member of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 4, and his mother, Marion, now retired from Sears.
Parisella has extensive past experience in the government, but outside of the spotlight. In addition to his public work with Salem and Beverly, he was a reporter for the Salem Evening News covering city, town and county government. He served as a Congressional Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant on Capitol Hill, providing constituent services to the residents of the 6th Congressional District, which includes Beverly.
Jerry also knows a bit about multi-tasking. A veteran of the Army Reserves since 1994, and currently serving as a Judge Advocate (lawyer) with a medical brigade at Fort Devens, he studied for the bar exam while preparing for deployment to Bosnia.
He trained all day in the field and, with the help of his Army buddies, studied legal topics at night in the barracks. Jerry received a three-day pass, flew home and took the bar exam and the next day was on a plane headed for his deployment. Despite balancing his legal studies with training on how to avoid land mines and snipers, Jerry passed the bar exam on his first try.
Jerry’s duties in the Army included an active duty tour handling court martial appeals for the Army’s Legal Services Agency and providing legal assistance to soldiers and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Jerry also volunteers his time serving on the Kiwanis Club of Beverly Board of Directors, as a trustee at the Children’s Center For Communication/Beverly School for the Deaf and on the YMCA-City of Beverly Youth Collaboration Board. He is also a member of the Beverly Board of Health.
Jerry is a graduate of Beverly High School, Emerson College and New England School of Law.