Top 25 Attorneys of Massachusetts for 2022

Attorney Intel is pleased to announce the Top 25 Attorneys of Massachusetts for 2022. The state, known for its many colleges and universities, including Harvard University — the first institution of higher learning in the country — it's no surprise that some of the country's most respected and ardent attorneys begin and make their mark here. This year's awardees are wildly passionate, consummate professionals, litigating issues like labor practices, sexual misconduct and environmental change. And it’s this deep and fervent dedication to the practice of law that’s embodied in their spirit, whether they’re fighting for not only what they believe, but what is simply right.

Among this year’s awardees is Brandon Tanguay, Partner at Morgan Lewis and Bockius. Tanguay has a rich and unshakeable devotion to the environment, which culminates in him serving in the firm’s energy industry team and its Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group. Also awarded is Kirsten White, Partner at Fox Rothschild, whose devotion to labor and employment issues has led her to advise on school operations, including responding to and investigating alleged student misconduct, employment and governance matters, student health and safety issues, collective bargaining, NLRA compliance, and crisis management. Meanwhile, Rich Kelly combines his experience in life sciences, corporate transactions and defending against parties that have activist or other hostile intentions toward publicly-traded companies with a personal interest in animal welfare.

Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of the Top 25 Attorneys of Massachusetts for 2022.

 

Ellen Scordino
Partner, DLA Piper

Ellen Scordino focuses on patent and trade secret litigation and client counseling in the pharmaceuticals, biologics, diagnostics, biofuels, and medical device industries. But the breadth of her experience is vast, having also represented clients in a wide range of other patent and general commercial matters in courts across the country.

In particular, Scordino has expertise with Hatch-Waxman and BPCIA litigations, having led trial teams to obtain favorable judgments and settlements in district courts and inter partes review proceedings. Scordino has also worked extensively with clients to create patent and litigation strategies mindful of regulatory issues and the FDA. She has litigated and counseled clients on matters involving everything from blockbuster drugs, biologics, biosimilars and orphan drugs to PCR technologies, recombinant DNA technologies and medical devices.

 

Nick Mitrokostas
Partner, Allen and Overy

Nick Mitrokostas is a partner in the intellectual property practice at Allen and Overy. As an experienced life sciences trial attorney, Mitrokostas focuses on representing innovative companies in matters spanning intellectual property, trade secrets, licensing and antitrust disputes. A litigator known for his trial skills, Mitrokostas has extensive experience representing clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries in federal and state courts as well as before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Mitrokostas has expertise in counseling emerging as well as small- and mid-cap life sciences companies in late-stage drug development (such as phase III clinical trials) on issues pertaining to patent and regulatory exclusivities. This includes patent term extension (PTE), patent listing requirements, and pre-commercial and launch assessments and litigation risks. Having previously represented generic and biosimilar companies in litigation, Mitrokostas works with companies to develop strategies for maximizing regulatory and patent exclusivity as well as mitigating risks associated with launching products in the US.

Mitrokostas has previously counseled and represented higher educational institutions in intellectual property matters. Additionally, he devotes significant time to representing pro bono clients in criminal and immigration matters. Earlier in his career, Mitrokostas served for seven months as a Special Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County. He prosecuted more than 200 cases, tried more than 15 jury and non-jury misdemeanor and felony cases, and argued numerous dispositive and evidentiary motions. Today, Mitrokostas serves on the Boston Bar Association’s IP Committee and chairs the IP in Review Committee. He frequently authors articles and speaks on life sciences and intellectual property through the lens of the legal industry. Mitrokostas has previously served as an adjunct professor teaching Patent Law at Northeastern University School of Law and has guest-lectured in other courses.

 

Stephen Moeller-Sally
Partner, White and Case

Steve Moeller-Sally is a partner in the White and Case’s Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice and is based in the Boston office. He represents clients in a wide range of bankruptcy and insolvency matters, including chapter 11 cases, cross-border insolvencies, out-of-court workouts, distressed sales and acquisitions, and insolvency-related litigation.

He has worked with asset managers and investment funds, as well as private and public companies, to devise creative approaches to managing liabilities and unlocking value in distressed situations. Moeller-Sally’s experience spans a number of different industries, including merchant electric power and utilities, manufacturing, chemicals, retail, automotive, oil and gas, real estate and telecommunications.

 

Laura Stevens
EVP and General Counsel, Cengage Group

Laura Stevens has been the Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Cengage Group since 2018. In this role she provides legal support for Cengage Group's business operations, corporate governance, compliance, and litigation. Stevens and her team provide legal advice, contract negotiation support, dispute management and legal operational support for Cengage Group's content licensing and acquisition activities.

Under her leadership, the realigned legal team has tackled longstanding challenges of the publishing industry. This led to the launch of Cengage Unlimited, this first-of-its-kind subscription service that offers access to all the company’s digital higher education materials. This helped propel the company’s rapid print-to-digital transformation. Stevens also founded the Cengage Group Privacy Office to promote industry-leading privacy standards for the responsible use of student data. Playing an essential role at Cengage Group since 2003, she joined Thomson Learning, now Cengage Group, as Publishing Counsel before moving on to the positions of Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property and Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel before her appointment to General Counsel in 2018.

Stevens also serves as the executive sponsor for inclusion and diversity efforts at Cengage Group. Prior to joining Thomson Learning, she was an attorney at Brown Raysman in New York City.

 

Sara Silva
Partner, Hogan Lovells

Sara Silva is a Boston-based trial lawyer with nearly 20 years of experience representing global companies and executives in internal investigations, federal investigations and prosecutions, and complex civil and commercial litigation. As a result, she’s garnered a reputation for defending clients facing high-profile criminal charges, including public officials, pharmaceutical executives, and foreign nationals.

As a passionate defender, she’s defended a myriad of allegations, including public corruption, export violations, fraud, manufacturing and design defects, and wrongful death. Silva is a nimble practitioner, with her clients operating in industries like pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, overseas imports, commercial fishing, and life sciences.

Silva has been the recipient of numerous professional excellence awards, including her latest accolade, being named the 2020 Massachusetts Lawyer of the Year.

 

Claire Rosa
Partner, Kirkland and Ellis

Claire Rosa is an investment funds partner in the Boston office of Kirkland and Ellis LLP advising on matters pertaining to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Rosa advises fund sponsors and managers on regulatory matters in connection with the investment of pension plan assets, including the structuring and operational considerations of private equity funds and other investment vehicles intending to qualify as VCOCs or REOCs. Other matters include relying on other exemptions issued under the plan asset regulations, and navigating ERISA’s fiduciary and prohibited transaction rules.

Rosa earned a JD from Boston University Law School and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Northeastern University.

 

Emily Rezendes
Senior Counsel, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Emily Rezendes is a research contracts attorney, specializing in operational transactional matters, from day-to-day material transfer and nondisclosure agreements to complex, multi-million dollar collaborative research arrangements.

Today, Rezendes is Senior Counsel, Operational Transactions within the Office of Strategic Alliances and Partnering at the Broad Institute. Here, her work focuses on sponsored research collaborations, academic-to-academic collaboration agreements, complex material transfer agreements, beta testing, evaluation agreements, and providing transactional support to the licensing team.

Prior to Broad, she was Staff Counsel in the Office of University Counsel at Tufts University, focusing on all types of operational and research-related transactions, primarily as the transactional counsel for the offices of Technology Transfer, Industry Collaboration and Research Administration and Development within the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.

 

Catherine Macris
Partner, Fragomen

Catherine Macris provides counsel on all aspects of corporate immigration, including nonimmigrant visa options and permanent residence at Fragomen. Notably, Macris represents clients in various industries, including financial services, insurance, fashion design and computer software.

Before she joined Fragomen Boston, Macris practiced immigration law in the New York City office and briefly in the office in Sydney, Australia. Before her stint in Australia, Macris practiced immigration law for renowned New York-based firm, Epstein Becker & Green. While in law school, she was a member of the Syracuse Law Review, between 2001 and 2003. She was also a graduate assistant in immigration law for the university's Slutzker Center for International Services and held an internship with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

 

Keith Kollmeyer
Partner, Jones Day

Keith Kollmeyer has a broad range of experience advising financial institutions in complex litigation and regulatory matters. This includes structured financial products and consumer financial products. He routinely advises indenture trustees, securities administrators, paying agents, and servicers in connection with asset-backed securities (ABS), including securities backed by residential mortgage loans, whole business assets, private student loans, and other asset classes.

Kollmeyer has worked on numerous novel and unique issues that impact the securitization industry. His experience includes high-stakes cases in state and federal courts in New York and Delaware involving ABS investors, ABS deal parties, and financial regulators, as well as complex cross-border matters concerning ABS deals. He has significant trial experience and has provided substantial pre-dispute advice to clients concerning documentation issues and risk assessment related to structured financial products.

In addition to his financial products practice, Kollmeyer maintains a pro bono practice. He currently works on immigration removal matters involving unaccompanied minors.

 

Kelsey Rose
Litigation Attorney, Morgan and Morgan PA

Kelsey Raycroft Rose is a litigation attorney at Morgan and Morgan's Boston Office. She represents clients in a wide variety of catastrophic personal injury cases, including wrongful death, motor vehicle collisions, traumatic brain injuries, premises liability claims, and fire and explosion incidents.

Rose is a member of the Massachusetts and New York Bar as well as the Massachusetts United States District Court (District of Massachusetts), and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. She previously worked as an intern for Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Judith Fabricant. She attended Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to earn her law degree from New England Law, where she was a recipient of a Dean's Merit Scholarship and a grant from the Center for Business Law Fellowship Program. Prior to becoming a lawyer she was a competitive figure skater and a member of the US figure skating team.

 

Brandon Tanguay
Partner, Morgan Lewis and Bockius

Brandon Tanguay advises both developers and lenders on all aspects of the development, financing, operation, acquisition, and disposition of major energy, clean-technology, and financed infrastructure projects. Tanguay recently focused on the representation of institutional investors and syndicated bank groups in the financing of utility-scale renewable energy projects across the US and Canada.

Tanguay has experience with the diligence, financing, and portfolio management of a wide range of projects, including solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, biomass, coal, natural gas, landfill gas, and transmission. He is a member of the firm’s energy industry team and also serves on the firm’s Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group. While attending Boston College Law School, Brandon was an officer of the Environmental Law Society and a member of the International Law Society. He worked at a Boston litigation firm, assisting with US Clean Water Act litigation. As a law clerk, Brandon worked in the Office of General Counsel at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2008, handling matters related to natural gas infrastructure, hydrokinetic licensing, and other federal regulatory matters.

Before law school, Brandon worked in the government relations department of the Nature Conservancy and as a high-altitude mountain guide, leading expeditions throughout the Western Hemisphere.

 

Deidre Arnold
Legal Counsel, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Deidre Arnold is the Senior Commercial Counsel of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. She first joined the company in 2018 as commercial counsel. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is the leading RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics company and its Nobel Prize-winning discovery is pioneering an entirely new class of medicines.

Arnold joined the company in 2018 as Commercial Counsel, before going onto become Senior Commercial Counsel and eventually being appointed Legal Counsel in 2022. Previously, Arnold was a senior global compliance director at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals and before that a litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP. Arnold earned a JD in law from St. John University School of Law and an undergraduate degree in economics from The George Washington University.

 

Joseph Parise
Partner, McDermott Will and Emery

Joseph Parise advises healthcare clients on a wide range of transactional and regulatory matters across the United States. He serves as counsel to private equity firms and their portfolio companies, as well as physician practices, practice management companies, behavioral health providers, hospitals, and health systems.

Parise has experience executing a variety of transactions within the healthcare industry, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, affiliations and divestitures. He also works with clients to navigate the complex strategic and regulatory issues associated with those transactions. Notably, Parise also provides guidance to clients on sector-specific regulatory issues spanning the practice of medicine, dentistry and physical therapy, state licensure and certificate of need, behavioral health and behavior analysis, and pharmacy and clinical laboratory matters.

 

Maria Strickland
Partner, Morrison and Foerster

Maria Strickland is a partner in Morrison and Foerster’s Finance Department and a member of the Finance and Projects Practice Group. Her practice focuses on representing banks and other financial institutions in single-lender and syndicated financing transactions with foreign and domestic private equity and venture capital funds. She also represents their general partners, management companies, and portfolio companies. Strickland has extensive experience advising clients on complex documentation, structuring and cross-border issues in connection with subscription facilities, capital call facilities, NAV-based facilities, GP and management facilities, fund guarantees, and intercreditor agreements.

Previously. Strickland served as a law clerk to the Honorable John S. Dalis, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Georgia. While receiving her JD from Boston College Law School, Strickland was a senior editor of the Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest.

 

Karen Petrulakis
General Counsel, Wellesley College

Karen Petrulakis joined Wellesley College as its first General Counsel in 2017. In this position, she’s responsible for the overall vision and strategy for the legal affairs of the College. As a member of the senior leadership team, Petrulakis provides legal advice and counsel to the President, Board of Trustees, and other members of the college community on a broad range of legal matters.

Petrulakis previously worked for the University of California system as its Chief Deputy General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel for Litigation. In this role she oversaw litigation across the University of California system's ten campuses. Prior to this, she was a partner in Crowell & Moring LLP's San Francisco office, where her practice included complex commercial litigation, employment litigation and counseling for corporate clients as well as public entities and universities.

Between 2018–2021, Petrulakis served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). She’s previously served as Chair of NACUA’s Strategic Planning Committee, Vice Chair of NACUA’s Committee on Board Operations, and as a member of NACUA’s Committee on the Program for the Annual Conference. Today, she serves on NACUA’s Committee on Honors and Awards as well as NACUA’s Committee on Nominations and Elections. She also currently serves as Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for the Boston Bar Association's (BBA) College and University Law Section, and as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the BBA’s 2023 Higher Education Legal Conference. Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly recently honored Petrulakis as a 2022 In-House Leader in the Law.

 

Brian Bloch
Vice President and General Counsel, SimpliSafe

Brian Bloch joined SimpliSafe, the nation’s fastest growing home security company, as its first General Counsel in 2016. In this position, he is responsible for the direction, management and oversight all global Legal Department activities, functions and teams and setting key strategic objectives and vision for the Department. As a member of the company’s Executive Team, Mr. Bloch participates in company-wide strategic planning and product and corporate development initiatives and provides legal advice and counsel to the Executive Team and Board of Directors on a wide range of legal and business matters. During his tenure at SimpliSafe, Mr. Bloch has grown the Legal Team to 10+ attorneys and legal and compliance professionals to support the company’s dramatic growth across a broad range of subject matter areas, including Technology, Innovation & Brand Protection, Commercial Operations & Transactions and Compliance.

Prior to joining SimpliSafe, Mr. Bloch worked in roles of increasing responsibility within the Legal Departments at Salary.com, Kaspersky, Vistaprint, and Shark|Ninja after commencing his career in private practice in 1999, serving as an Associate within Edwards & Angell’s Venture Capital and M&A Departments. Mr. Bloch earned a JD/MBA from Boston College Law School and Carroll School of Management in 1999 and undergraduate degree in Russian Language & Literature from Brown University in 1996. In 2019, Mr. Bloch was named to the GC Powerlist (US), issued by The Legal 500.

 

Weishi Li
Partner, Covington and Burling

Weishi Li leads Covington and Burlig’s China life sciences transaction practice, focusing on working with life sciences clients on cross-border transactions. Previously Li served for five years as Managing Partner of the Shanghai office.

Li has extensive experience assisting Western and Chinese life sciences companies in structuring and negotiating cross-border commercial, corporate, and partnering transactions involving China. This includes strategic collaborations, joint ventures, licensing, acquisitions, co-promotion, and distribution arrangements. As a registered US patent attorney with a PhD in microbiology and substantial food and drug regulatory experience, Li has a deep understanding of the complex issues confronting the industry and is well-versed in helping clients tackle these challenges.

 

Nicole Mastrangelo
Staff Attorney, Beam Therapeutics

Nicole Mastrangelo is the Staff Attorney of Beam Therapeutics and has a career spanning over 18 years. The company is committed to cutting-edge science, and a vision of providing lifelong cures to patients suffering from serious diseases. Beam Therapeutics, which was launched in 2018, is pioneering the use of CRISPR base editing to develop a broad portfolio of advanced genetic medicines.

Mastrangelo joined the company in 2021 as a Technology Specialist before being appointed as Staff Attorney overseeing IP at the beginning of 2022. Before joining Beam Therapeutics, Mastrangelo was a research associate at Biogen and before that a research assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital. This year, she started as a part-time Lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law. Mastrangelo graduated from Suffolk University Law School with a JD and from Northeastern University with an undergraduate degree in biology and general.

 

Clark Lin
Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati

Dr. Clark Lin is a partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati's Boston office. He practices intellectual property law, with an emphasis on patent prosecution, general intellectual property counseling, and intellectual property litigation. Dr. Lin focuses on the pharmaceutical, life science, and biotechnology fields.

While in graduate school, Dr. Lin investigated signal transduction of intracellular pathways involved in cellular proliferation, differentiation, programmed death, and stress response. He characterized a number of novel effectors that modulate MAP kinases, known proteins often deregulated in different cancers and diseases.

Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Lin interned as a law clerk for the Washington State Office of the Attorney General and for the University of Washington Office of Technology Transfer, where he worked on a variety of intellectual property matters, including trademark enforcement, software license agreement drafting, copyright infringement, and evaluations of university research for IP protection.

 

Andrew Pickett
Partner, Jackson Lewis PC

Andrew Pickett is a Principal in the Boston, Massachusetts, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. His practice focuses exclusively on employment litigation and counseling on behalf of management. Pickett advises clients regularly on employment law issues, including allegations of unlawful discrimination, reductions in force, FMLA leave, the Americans with Disabilities Act, non-competition agreements, and litigation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. He has substantial trial experience, and appears frequently in state and federal courts in employment-related litigation.

Pickett previously served as a Special Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex County District Attorney and as a law clerk to the Honorable Albert W. Coffrin, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont. Prior to joining Jackson Lewis, Pickett was with the prominent Boston-based firm Ropes and Gray. Pickett lectures frequently on employment law.

 

Andrew Daniels
General Counsel, J Derenzo Companies

Andrew Daniels is the General Counsel of J Derenzo Companies, one of New England’s premier site work contractors for over 65 years. Daniels has over 32 years of experience, having worked for many prestigious firms since he started his career in 1990.

Before joining J Derenzo Companies, Daniels was a partner at LeClairRyan and before that a partner at Hinckley, Allen and Synder LLP. Earlier in his career he worked with Bingham and Dana and Gould as an associate. Daniels graduated from Suffolk University Law School with a JD and from Penn State University with an undergraduate degree in political science and economics.

 

Kirsten White
Partner, Fox Rothschild

Kirsten White is a strategic adviser to employers on a range of labor and employment issues, with a focus on collective bargaining and matters arising under the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act. Clients rely on her to provide pragmatic, goal-oriented counsel in collective bargaining negotiations, National Labor Relations Board proceedings and labor arbitrations. She also provides advice on aspects of labor-management relations and collective bargaining agreement administration.

White is also Co-Chair of the firm's Education Department and provides labor and employment counsel to educational institutions, from independent schools and colleges to universities. She advises on school operations, including responding to and investigating alleged student misconduct, employment and governance matters, student health and safety issues, collective bargaining, NLRA compliance, and crisis management.

When it comes to employment law, White helps employers implement effective workplace policies as well as wage and hour practices to ensure that they execute corporate transactions in compliance with a range of federal, state and local labor regulations. She has extensive experience advising employers on issues surrounding the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), and on the planning and implementation of effective and compliant veteran hiring programs.

White’s experience also includes leading internal investigations related to incidents of sexual harassment, statutory compliance, and alleged employee misconduct. In these situations, she advises organizations and executive decision-makers on the management and remediation of high-stakes workplace challenges.

 

Gerry D’Ambrosio
Managing Partner, D’Ambrosio LLP

Gerry D’Ambrosio is the Managing Partner of D’Ambrosio LLP, a Boston-based law firm offering creative and comprehensive solutions for clients. With nearly 30 years of legal and business experience, D’Ambrosio is a sought-after legal advisor in both local and national business and development sectors. Notably, D’Ambrosio serves clients such as Amazon, Blackstone, Constitution Capital Partners, Integrated Financial Partners, and Novo Nordisk. Thanks to his ability to identify critical issues and provide clients with successful solutions, D’Ambrosio is trusted with economic development matters, complex transactions, and business litigation.
Before entering private practice, D’Ambrosio first served as a judicial law clerk to Justice Edward F. Harrington of the United States District Court, Boston, and later as a state prosecutor for the Honorable Ralph C. Martin II. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University and cum laude graduate of Suffolk Law School where he was a Trustee Scholar and Editor of the Law Review.

 

Tara Davis
Partner, Nesenoff and Miltenberg

Tara Davis focuses her practice on Title IX and Title VII, representing students and faculty members involved in college disciplinary matters — including campus assault — throughout the investigatory and hearing process. Her deep institutional knowledge and unique expertise has gained national recognition. She has represented students and faculty at more than 100 public and private educational institutions across the country, on matters ranging from academic dishonesty to sexual misconduct.

Davis is passionate about safeguarding individuals’ human rights, and approaches each case with zealous advocacy, attention to detail, and a clear understanding of her client’s goals. As an accomplished practitioner in both federal and state court, Davis has litigated in more than a dozen states at both the trial and appellate levels.

Some of Davis’ cases have generated significant attention from major news media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, CBS Sunday Morning, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Fox News, and National Public Radio.

 

Matthew Lane
Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough

Matt Lane is a part of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP’s corporate practice as a Partner in its Boston office. Lane focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, real estate, private equity investments, and other general business transactions. He represents developers and sponsors in the structuring of real estate investment funds in various classes, including investment in opportunity zone funds and businesses. Lane regularly represents clients in complex sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions across various industries.

Lane also has a robust sports law practice, representing athletes as they negotiate endorsement contracts, agent agreements, and other commercial rights. He also represents tax-exempt amateur athletic organizations. Previously, he worked as a USA Track and Field authorized athlete agent and manager for many professional track and field athletes. Lane received his JD from the University of Maine School of Law and his Bachelor of Business Administration from College of William & Mary.