Alumni Spotlight – Jason Masimore ‘92

It is unusual to include the accomplishments of someone only 15 years removed from SHS (give-or-take) in this “Alumni Pride” feature. The assumption is that it takes more “lifetime” than 15 years to have an interesting story. But occasionally someone comes along who fills those relatively few years with a tale that must be told. The life-in-progress of Jason Masimore meets that standard.

While at Susquehannock, Jason was a premier violinist, serving as concertmaster (first chair violin) for most of his career. He qualified for District, Regional, and All-State honors, and also performed professionally with the York Symphony Orchestra and other local ensemble groups. Included in the early years of his musical resume is involvement with York Junior Symphony, York Youth Symphony, Baltimore Youth Symphony, and York Little Theatre.

He was also a member of the National Honor Society, Assistant Editor of The Courier, and President of Student Council. As an assistant editor with The Courier, he helped forge the tradition of a Warrior dynasty on the high school newspaper awards circuit, a position the paper enjoys to this day. Personally, he was awarded a national Quill and Scroll Award for feature writing. And as President of the Student Council he was elevated to near superstar status among the student body for successfully challenging the District’s infamous “shorts policy.”

At the time, the wearing of shorts was banned except for a very narrow window of time at the beginning and end of each school year. Back then, school buildings were not air-conditioned and Jason believed flexibility was required, recognizing that heat spells routinely occurred outside the policy-defined window, which he believed to be arbitrary. His closing argument was along the lines that, “The student body might be more willing to accept the “narrow window” approach if the administration building would use its air-conditioning only during those same periods.” The policy was reversed and stands substantially unchanged to this day.

Upon graduation, Jason attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music to pursue his violin studies, while at the same time carrying a double major in Chemistry at the University of Rochester, having particularly enjoyed his high school chemistry classes with Mr. Leese. He later dropped Chemistry to devote full-time attention to music and graduated with a major in violin performance in 1996.

He followed his Eastman degree with a Master’s degree (granted in 1998) from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, also in violin performance. While there, he performed with the Napa Valley Symphony and the Oakland Symphony and supplemented his income as a street musician, fitting into the eclectic San Francisco culture with no problem.

With impressive credentials as a concert violinist and in preparation for the audition circuit, Jason faced a promising career in symphonic performance, but had an epiphany of sorts. As Jason describes it, “I was brushing my teeth one morning and realized I hadn’t used the ‘other part of my brain’ for some time. I think I’ll be a lawyer!”

The next year he was accepted at Georgetown University Law Center, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2002. He was also awarded the school’s “Order of the Coif” and was articles editor of the prestigious Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. At commencement, he gave his section’s student commencement address, entitled “Law School Was One Gigantic Tort.”

Upon graduation from Georgetown, he got a job with Hughes Hubbard and Reed, one of the top law firms in the United States, on the strength of his then specialty in copyright law. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 2003 and was also granted privileges in the Eastern and Southern Federal District Courts of New York.

In his first year at Hughes Hubbard, Jason did practice his specialty, but as his custom, he became interested in new challenges and began work in the criminal defense practice, striving to be a trial attorney, which he believes involves more of the same type of “performance skills” he developed as a musician. Recently, he tried an 8-day criminal case in the Bronx, pro bono, representing an alleged general of the Bloods gang against charges of assaulting a prison guard on Rikers Island. He is also representing the same pro bono client against the City of New York and other officials in federal court in a civil rights action stemming from the same incident. He gained national notoriety as a member of the criminal defense team for the indicted former Chief Strategic Officer of Westar Energy, the largest utility company in Kansas, a case called by newspapers “The Enron of the West.” After that experience, high profile cases became routine for Jason, still less than five years out of law school. His most recent assignment is for the defense of the recently indicted former senior hedge fund portfolio manager from Bear Stearns, the investment banking firm that the press often mentions in conjunction with the “subprime mortgage crisis” that rocked Wall Street in 2007. (However he still lists his successful challenge of Suskie’s shorts policy among his greatest victories.)

His specialties are now listed as criminal representation, Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission representation, internal investigations, white-collar crime, and prisoners’ civil rights.

Jason lives in Brooklyn – right under the Brooklyn Bridge in the aptly named “DUMBO” neighborhood – with his wife, C.J., a public interest attorney. He loves the excitement of the big city, but still regards his roots in Southern York County with great fondness, returning to visit his mother, Dianne, and sister Sarah (SHS ’97), an attorney in York, several times a year. His father, Gary (SHS ’64) passed away in December 2001. His favorite time is the Christmas holiday when he makes it a point to follow the Glen Rock Carolers, eat some fresh peanuts “from that nice bearded gentleman in the hat (something one should never do in New York City)” and meet old friends. Every couple of years he also enjoys playing his violin at the Christmas Eve service at Immanuel United Methodist Church in Glen Rock.

He recalls his days at Susquehannock with fondness, mentioning the caring faculty and opportunities for activities in conjunction with excellent academic standards as important to his success. Who knows where this tale will lead, but for certain it is not the “Story of Jason Masimore;” it is only the first installment.

Thanks, Jason, for making us Warrior Proud.