Best Lawyers in Massachusetts, United States for Bet-the-Company Litigation
Massachusetts is a rich state with a wide range of legal issues spanning industries, personal matters and public interests. From complex corporate litigation in Boston to family law cases in Worcester, choosing the right attorney in Massachusetts is essential.
This directory exists to help you make that choice with confidence. Whether you're navigating a business dispute or seeking guidance on estate planning, this is your starting point to connect with peer-recognized professionals across the state.
Explore a Trusted Directory of Attorneys in Massachusetts
This page is a curated directory of attorneys in Massachusetts who have earned recognition through Best Lawyers' rigorous peer-review process. You can browse by legal specialty, location or an individual lawyer’s name. Every profile includes verified, current credentials to help you compare qualifications and make informed contact decisions.
You’ll find professionals who represent a wide range of practices and regions, all committed to delivering results aligned with ethical and professional standards. Whether you’re a business executive, in-house counsel or an individual facing a personal legal challenge, this tool helps you find a lawyer in Massachusetts with the right experience and focus.
Legal Services Across Every Corner of the Commonwealth
The needs of Massachusetts residents are varied. This directory helps you refine your search geographically and by practice area.
- Boston remains a national legal hub, with top-tier attorneys in corporate law, white-collar defense, healthcare regulation and intellectual property.
- Cambridge caters to academic institutions, biotech firms and tech startups, offering services in education law, patent filings and startup counsel.
- Worcester and Springfield provide broad representation in family law, personal injury and workers' compensation—all essential for clients seeking local support.
- Lowell and Lawrence are home to attorneys focused on immigration law and employment matters, including wage disputes, visa services and workplace discrimination claims.
Wherever your legal issue arises, you’ll find attorneys across Massachusetts who understand the unique legal landscape of their region. Whether you're looking to resolve a dispute, defend your rights or plan for the future, you’ll find guidance here.
Why Trust This Directory to Find Your Legal Advocate
Each attorney in Massachusetts listed here has earned their place through Best Lawyers’ time-tested selection process. Every year, attorneys are nominated and reviewed by their peers, with a focus on professional excellence, legal ethics and meaningful client outcomes.
Inclusion is not purchased. While attorneys can manage their profile information, only those selected for the most recent edition are featured. This gives clients confidence that they’re viewing a current and credible list of attorneys in Massachusetts.
The peer-review methodology reflects what fellow professionals value most—trust, competence and consistency. It’s a high bar and every lawyer listed has met it.
Start Your Search Today
This is where your legal search begins—with a trusted, structured list of attorneys in Massachusetts who have been recognized by their peers for professional excellence. Use the filters to narrow down by location, practice area or name. Whether you're looking for help with a business transaction or need a skilled advocate for a personal legal issue, this directory helps you find a lawyer in Massachusetts who fits your specific needs.
Practice Area Overview
Bet-the-company cases create unique challenges. Counsel inside and outside the company must respond to several alarmed constituencies, including insiders (management, the board, employees, shareholders, investors); outsiders (customers, vendors, lenders, insurers), and regulatory authorities (to name only a few: SEC, FTC, FDA, EPA, and DOJ and their international counterparts). Counsel must conduct every aspect of the litigation with the needs and desires of these sometimes conflicting constituencies constantly in mind.
The company may face multiple investigations: congressional, criminal, regulatory, as well as special quasi-governmental commissions and internal investigations conducted by the company itself or by other parties. Counsel must deal with these investigations understanding that decisions made early on can have an enormous impact on the outcomes of investigations, subsequent litigation, and on the ultimate resolution.
Litigation may erupt in multiple jurisdictions (federal, state, international) and in multiple forms (criminal, civil, administrative, arbitral). The company may face multiple litigation adversaries, including the United States Department of Justice, State Attorneys General, regulatory counsel, and private counsel for adverse parties. Parties aligned with the company will have their own counsel, constituencies and agendas. The formal and informal coordination of all these proceedings and parties will impact the duration, cost and course of the litigation. The reputation of the company’s lead counsel – in part pre-existing and in part earned over the course of the litigation – will be critical in dealing with all these tribunals, parties, and attorneys.
Bet-the-company cases require an ability not only to navigate in these different environments, but also to see how the moving parts fit together. That in turn is the key to a more important ability: to work out, with the client, a plan – a plan that will be constantly adjusted – to get from the chaotic beginning to a satisfactory resolution.
It is best in bet-the-company cases to have a lead lawyer responsible for coordinating the varied teams of lawyers needed to handle, under a coherent plan, all these facets of the problem – teams with varying types of expertise, drawn from multiple firms, and often working in different locations. With leadership, cohesive teams can solve extraordinary problems.
Corporate Law & Commercial Litigation Legal Guide 2025
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Cities
James R. Carroll heads the litigation practice of Skadden’s Boston office. Mr. Carroll has broad experience — including jury trial experience — in consumer products, insurance, subprime-related issues and securities class action defense, as well as a broad array of complex civil litigations. Mr. Carroll is handling a number of purported class actions for major national life insurers and is defending a variety of purported class and individual actions in the life, disability ...
Chad Dale is a partner in Proskauer’s Corporate Department and a member of both the Business Solutions, Governance, Restructuring & Bankruptcy and Private Credit Restructuring Groups. Chad has 30 years of experience in corporate reorganizations and debt restructurings. As a member of the Private Credit Restructuring Group, Chad’s practice focuses on direct lenders and ad hoc groups of direct lenders, hedge funds and BDC’s. He also represents troubled companies, equity sp...
Sandy Dibble is a member of the Litigation, Health Care and Employment practice groups. Prior to joining the firm, Sandy served as a law clerk for Justice Francis J. Quirico of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Since then, he has concentrated his practice in resolving problems and disputes for individuals and for-profit and non-profit enterprises through advice, negotiation, litigation, arbitration and mediation involving a wide range of matters including health care, antitrust, trade...
John J. Monaghan is the national practice group leader of the firm's Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors' Rights Practice Group. Mr. Monaghan is particularly focused on representing major case participants in complex commercial Chapter 11 cases. His extensive bankruptcy practice has involved representation of a wide range of clients, including Chapter 11 debtors, creditors’ committees, equity committees, lenders, purchasers of assets, landlords, licensors, trustees, parties to prepe...
W. Scott O'Connell is a trial attorney and litigation strategist in Holland & Knight's Boston and New York City offices. Mr. O'Connell focuses his practice on complex commercial disputes involving significant financial and reputational exposure. He has considerable experience leading class action and aggregate litigation as well as parallel government enforcement and regulatory proceedings, most notably involving health service, financial service, energy, technology, telecommunications or...
Mark W. Pearlstein concentrates his practice on white-collar criminal defense, the defense of actions brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, complex commercial litigation, arbitration and internal investigations. Previously, he was the partner-in-charge of the Boston office and served as head of the Boston Trial Department. Mark is also a member of the Firm-wide Management Committee. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/pearlstein-mark-w/
John Pucci is one of Massachusetts’ top trial lawyers. He represents individuals and companies in complex civil and criminal litigation of all kinds in both state and federal court, as well as in responding to government investigations and in conducting corporate internal investigations. He has particular experience in the areas of white collar criminal defense and state and federal regulatory agency matters. Since 2002, John has been a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, w...
Attorney Charlie Rankin began practicing criminal law in 1980. He practices in both state and federal courts. Charlie’s practice focuses on representing clients in a diverse array of complex criminal matters, but he is best known for his work representing clients charged with white collar crimes, including health care fraud, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, computer or cybercrimes, financial fraud, telemarketing fraud, tax fraud, and public corruption. In recent years, he was successful in ...
Alan Rose founded the firm in 1995. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts, he represents clients in a wide variety of civil litigation matters and defends individuals and companies in governmental and regulatory investigations and prosecutions. Alan has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts by Boston Magazine . From 2002 to 2006, he served, by appointment of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, on the Board of Bar Overseers, including serving as it...
Richard Zielinski, who practices in Boston and New York, is a nationally known ‘bet the company’ trial lawyer who handles a wide range of complex, high-stakes commercial litigation. He is also known for his specific expertise in legal malpractice defense. According to Chambers USA, Richard is ‘very smart, thorough and knowledgeable. ’ Clients say he is ‘fantastic on his feet’ and ‘thinks seven steps ahead of everyone else.’ He has extensive tria...
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Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
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Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.