Thomas F. Maffei

Tom co-founded our firm in 2000.  Prior to that, Tom had spent his entire legal career at Choate, Hall & Stewart, where he started as an associate in September 1972 and was elected to partnership in January 1979.  While a partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart, Tom was a member of the firm’s management committee and chaired one of the Firm’s major litigation practice groups.

Tom has been active in professional activities as well as in various civic and non-profit organizations.  He was president of the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1988/1989 and was a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association.  Tom chaired the state bar association’s Civil Litigation Section and served as vice-chair of the association’s Committee on Professional Responsibility. From 1984 to 1988, Tom served as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.  He also served as a member of the Chief Justice’s Commission on the Future of the Courts and co-chaired the Quality of Justice Task Force.  Tom currently is a trustee of MCLE, Inc., the largest provider of continuing legal education in New England, and a trustee of the Flashner Judicial Institute, a provider of legal education for Massachusetts judges.  Tom is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Tom has a very diverse law practice.  He represents individuals and businesses in complex civil litigation involving contract, tort and unfair competition disputes.  He has handled high exposure coverage and bad faith claims handling disputes on behalf of national insurers, and also has represented clients in real estate and construction law matters.  A significant portion of Tom’s practice involves advising and representing lawyers and law firms in professional liability, ethics and bar disciplinary proceedings.

Tom also has a substantial mediation practice.  He has successfully mediated business disputes, construction claims and matters involving lawyers and law firms.

Tom teaches professional responsibility at Boston College Law School and Suffolk University Law School.  He has also lectured and written extensively on a variety of legal topics concerning litigation, trial practice, professional ethics and lawyer discipline issues.

Tom graduated with honors from Boston College in 1968 and Boston College Law School in 1971.  He was an editor of the Boston College Industrial and Commercial Law Review and was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif.  Following graduation from law school, Tom served as law clerk to the Honorable Edward F. Hennessy, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.