Baddour To Leave Mass. Senate, Join Law Firm

State Sen. Steven Baddour says he is resigning his seat on Beacon Hill to become a partner in a Boston law firm.

The Methuen Democrat is in his fifth two-year term in the Senate. He announced in a letter to supporters on Monday that he planned to join the firm of McDermott, Will & Emery. He called it one of the "more complex and important decisions" of his life.

Baddour is the vice chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee and is a former chair of the Legislature's Transportation Committee.

He is also one of the three Senate negotiators on a conference committee that has been trying for months to hammer out an agreement on a bill overhauling the state's sentencing and parole laws.