Practice areas

Six practices, staffed by partners who have spent their careers in them. Whatever the matter, you will be told early what it is likely to cost and what it is realistically worth.

Corporate & Transactions

From the first shareholder agreement to the day you sell, we are the outside counsel a closely held business calls before it acts — not after.

Most of our corporate clients are companies with real revenue, a small board and no in-house lawyer. What they need is not a memorandum; it is a partner who already knows the cap table, the bank covenant and the brother-in-law on the board, and who will answer the phone on a Friday afternoon.

We act on formations and restructurings, shareholder and operating agreements, venture and bank financing, commercial contracts, and the sale or purchase of a business. On the sell side we start work years before a sale, because the value of a company at closing is mostly decided by the housekeeping done long beforehand.

What we handle

Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
Shareholder and operating agreements
Venture, mezzanine and bank financing
Corporate governance and board advice
Commercial and supply contracts
Succession and ownership transition

Who we act for

Family and founder-owned companies
Private equity-backed platforms
Non-profit and educational institutions
Executives and minority shareholders

Considering a sale, a raise or a restructuring?

Speak with a partner

Commercial Litigation

We prepare every matter as though it will be tried. That is precisely why most of them settle on terms our clients are content to accept.

Litigation is expensive, slow and public, and it is occasionally the only sensible option. Our first job is to tell you honestly which of those two situations you are in — including when the answer is that your strongest position is a settlement you will not enjoy signing.

When a case is worth fighting, we build the record early: preservation, key documents and the two or three witnesses whose testimony will decide it. Our partners have tried cases in the Massachusetts Superior and Business Litigation Sessions, the federal District of Massachusetts, and on appeal before the First Circuit and the Supreme Judicial Court.

What we handle

Contract, partnership and shareholder disputes
Business torts, fraud and fiduciary claims
Injunctions and emergency relief
Construction and real estate litigation
Arbitration and mediated resolution
Appeals in state and federal courts

How we work

Written case assessment within two weeks
Budget and decision tree at every stage
Trial team named from the outset
Settlement posture reviewed quarterly

Served with a complaint, or about to file one?

Speak with a partner

Real Estate

Acquisition, development, leasing and land use across three states — with the permitting experience to see a project through to occupancy.

Property matters turn on details that surface late: an easement nobody mapped, a use that predates the zoning, a lender that changes its requirements a fortnight before closing. Our real estate group is built to find those early, when they are still negotiable.

We represent buyers, sellers, developers, landlords and institutional tenants in transactions from a single retail lease to a mixed-use conversion. We also appear before planning and zoning boards, where a project is often won or lost on the quality of the presentation rather than the merits of the plan.

What we handle

Commercial acquisitions and dispositions
Development, zoning and permitting
Commercial leasing, landlord and tenant
Construction contracts and disputes
Title review, survey and closings
1031 exchanges and joint ventures

Recent work

Mixed-use conversion of a historic mill
Portfolio sale of eleven retail properties
Ground lease for a regional grocer
Variance for a waterfront redevelopment

Have a site under agreement, or a lease to negotiate?

Speak with a partner

Family Law

Divorce, custody and support handled with discretion and steadiness — and with a clear eye on what your family looks like five years from now.

Family matters are the ones clients remember for the rest of their lives, and the ones where an aggressive lawyer can do the most lasting damage. We do not escalate for the sake of it. We do prepare thoroughly, because a well-documented position is what makes a reasonable settlement possible.

We act in divorce and separation, custody and parenting time, child and spousal support, modification and enforcement, and in the negotiation of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Where a case involves a business, a professional practice or a trust interest, our corporate partners value it in-house.

What we handle

Divorce, separation and annulment
Custody and parenting plans
Child support and alimony
Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
Modification and enforcement
Mediation and collaborative divorce

What to expect

A confidential first meeting
A written plan before any filing
Costs discussed at every decision
Children kept out of the dispute

Considering a separation, or need an agreement reviewed?

Speak with a partner

Employment

Counsel for employers who would rather stay out of court, and for executives negotiating the terms on which they arrive or leave.

For employers, most of the value we add is preventative: handbooks that match actual practice, classifications that survive an audit, and a documented process before a difficult termination rather than after it. When a claim does arrive, we have usually already built the file that defends it.

For executives, we negotiate offer letters, equity and severance, and advise on restrictive covenants — including the increasingly narrow circumstances in which a Massachusetts non-compete will actually be enforced.

For employers

Handbooks, policies and training
Workplace investigations
Discrimination and retaliation defence
Wage and hour compliance
Reductions in force

For executives

Offer, equity and severance negotiation
Non-compete and solicitation advice
Whistleblower and retaliation claims
Partnership and practice departures

Facing a claim, a departure or a difficult termination?

Speak with a partner

Intellectual Property

Protecting the marks, designs, software and know-how that make a business worth more than the sum of its assets.

A trademark that was never registered, a developer agreement that never assigned the code, a customer list treated as a secret but never protected as one — these are the gaps that surface in diligence, at exactly the moment they cost the most to fix.

We clear and register trademarks, draft and negotiate licences and technology agreements, put trade secret programmes in place, and litigate infringement when a portfolio has to be defended. We work alongside patent counsel where a matter calls for it.

What we handle

Trademark clearance and prosecution
Licensing and technology transfer
Software and development agreements
Trade secret protection programmes
Copyright and content disputes
Infringement and dilution litigation

Often paired with

Corporate diligence before a sale
Employment and confidentiality terms
Brand expansion into new states
Distribution and reseller networks

Need a mark cleared, a licence drafted or a portfolio defended?

Speak with a partner

Working with us

Questions clients ask before they instruct

What does an initial consultation cost?

The first conversation is free and confidential, whether it lasts ten minutes or an hour. Its purpose is to establish whether you have a matter worth pursuing and whether this firm is the right one to handle it. If the answer to either is no, we will tell you so and, where we can, point you to someone better placed.

How are your fees structured?

Defined pieces of work — an agreement, a closing, a filing — are quoted as fixed fees. Litigation and open-ended matters are billed hourly against a written estimate, with a call before any step that would change it materially. Some matters are handled on a contingency or blended basis where that fits the client’s circumstances.

Who will actually do the work?

A named partner is responsible for every matter and remains your point of contact throughout. Associates and paralegals do the work best done at their level, at their rates. You will be told at the outset who is on the team and what each of them costs.

How quickly can you take on an urgent matter?

Emergency injunctions, restraining orders and closings with a fixed deadline are triaged the day they arrive. Call the office rather than emailing if you are working to a court deadline within seventy-two hours.

Do you act outside Massachusetts?

Our attorneys are admitted in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, and appear pro hac vice elsewhere alongside local counsel. Transactional work is routinely handled across state lines.

Practice areas

Corporate & Transactions

What we handle

Who we act for

Commercial Litigation

What we handle

How we work

Real Estate

What we handle

Recent work

Family Law

What we handle

What to expect

Employment

For employers

For executives

Intellectual Property

What we handle

Often paired with

Questions clients ask before they instruct

Tell us what happened. We will tell you where you stand.