Deval Patrick, Roderick Ireland and Kimberly Budd honor William ‘Mo’ Cowan at portrait unveiling

The afternoon featured a wave of reminiscences, anecdotes and personal accounts of encounters and experiences that highlighted Cowan’s enduring impact.

by Tanner Stening

October 30, 2025

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A portrait of former Massachusetts Sen. William “Mo” Cowan, a beloved member of the Northeastern University community, now lives in the Boston campus’s Law Library. 

Thursday’s unveiling of the oil painting, which features Cowan in his characteristic smiling profile, brought dignitaries from far and wide to the Boston campus to pay tribute to a man who helped shape Massachusetts state politics.

“I’m so proud of you,” said former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who worked closely with the Northeastern graduate. “I think I speak for all of us here … in saying how high our hopes remain for the things that you will do, and the contributions of the kind that you have made, for those you will make.”

Cowan held several top roles under Patrick, serving as his chief legal counsel, chief of staff and senior adviser. He graduated from Northeastern’s School of Law in 1994. 

Cowan’s entry into national politics was somewhat abrupt. When U.S. Sen. John Kerry stepped down in 2013 to join the Obama administration, Patrick tapped Cowan to fill the vacant Massachusetts seat that Kerry had held for 28 years. 

Since then, he’s built a career spanning public service, law and business — now serving as chief legal and external affairs officer at Devoted Health, a fast-growing, tech-driven health care company.

Before joining Devoted Health, Cowan led global government affairs and policy at General Electric, advising senior executives and serving as the company’s chief liaison to policymakers worldwide. 

The afternoon featured a wave of reminiscences, anecdotes and personal accounts of encounters and experiences that highlighted Cowan’s enduring impact and legacy. 

“Northeastern University will always be my north star,” Cowan said. “It was here I learned that the law isn’t just some construct or even an academic pursuit. It was here that I learned through the teachings of many professors and time with many staff members, that we were here to learn a trade, a true trade, and that we were being armed with weapons for justice and equality.”

James Hackney, dean of the Northeastern School of Law, called Cowan a trailblazer, summarizing his business and political accomplishments. Cowan was the second Black senator in Massachusetts history and the first African American U.S. senator to serve at the same time as another Black senator.

“We are deeply proud of everything he has accomplished throughout this career,” Hackney told a standing-room-only auditorium.

Roger Michel, executive director of the Institute for Digital Archaeology, said the portrait serves a “profoundly important role” in inspiring the next generation of lawyers, “offering up” Cowan “as an example of who we are and what we value.”

Roderick Ireland, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and a distinguished professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern, first met the former Massachusetts senator when he was a law student at Northeastern. He described Cowan as a “humble, hardworking and grounded” leader who rose from modest beginnings to hold powerful roles in law, government and business.

Ireland, who has taught at Northeastern for nearly 50 years, spoke about Cowan’s first co-op experience at the U.S. District Court in Judge Patti Saris’ chambers, noting that he showed then the very qualities that would come to define his leadership.

“Mo was still the same guy with the same down-to-earth, low-key approach that he had when I met him as a student at Northeastern Law School,” Ireland said.

Kimberly Budd, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, said there were “many remarkable things about Mo and his career — one of them is that he has become such a renowned and beloved figure here in Massachusetts,” she said.

Budd credits Cowan with paving the way for her appointment to the state’s highest court and for helping to guide Ireland’s rise as the Supreme Judicial Court’s first African American chief justice.

She described him as “the epitome of grace under pressure.”

“I think about the many, many things I’ve learned from this extraordinary man,” Patrick said. “And one of the things he taught me is you don’t accomplish anything before you make friends. You don’t make money, you don’t make legislation, you don’t make an appointment. You make a connection. You take the time to hear and to listen and to care about the interests of others.”

Cowan said he was deeply humbled by the honor.