Joe is a seasoned litigator with extensive experience handling complex commercial cases including those involving trade secret theft, intra-corporate disputes, breaches of fiduciary duty, fraud, and unfair and deceptive business practices. He also focuses his practice on representing and advising newspapers, publishers, and other media-related entities and individuals in defamation, invasion of privacy, and First Amendment matters.
Joe takes a proactive approach in providing strategic guidance to avoid - and resolve - critical disputes that threaten his clients' businesses. As an experienced trial lawyer, Joe has successfully litigated a number of high-profile, bet-the-company cases.
Representative Matters
· Obtained a jury verdict in favor of a high-profile hedge fund manager, who had been sued for securities fraud under the Massachusetts Uniform Securities Act as well as for unfair and deceptive trade practices. After a two-week trial, the jury found that the client had made no misrepresentation in connection with the offering of interests in a hedge fund. Shortly thereafter, the presiding judge of the Business Litigation Session found that the client had not engaged in any unfair and deceptive acts under the Massachusetts statute, which represented a complete vindication for the client.
· Obtained a multi-million-dollar settlement for a Massachusetts security software company that had brought an arbitration claim against a Fortune 100 company for breaching a complex software development agreement.
· Obtained over a million dollar verdict on behalf of AstraZeneca against its former CEO for fraud, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty. While defeating the CEO's claims for defamation, Joe and his partners obtained a favorable appellate decision before the Supreme Judicial Court which has now resulted in an $18 million judgment in favor of AstraZeneca. This was a significant victory for AstraZeneca both at the trial and appellate levels and has been recognized by former Chief Justice Margaret Marshall as one of her "notable decisions" under the category of free speech.
· Successfully represented a group of individuals and non-profit entities who had been sued by the Islamic Society of Boston for defamation and a "conspiracy to defame" arising from concerns about its leaders. After zealous discovery, the claims were dismissed for no consideration, no retractions, and no apologies.
· Successfully defended a corporate president and his company against fraud allegations in a six-week bench trial in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session while obtaining a multi-million-dollar judgment on his clients' counterclaims for fraud and breach of contract, which was recognized as one of the top bench verdicts for 2005 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.
· Obtained a multi-million-dollar settlement for a former CEO and business owner who had sold his company to a publicly-traded conglomerate that refused to pay certain post-closing price adjustments as required in the purchase and sale agreement.
Before joining Mintz Levin, Joe served as a military prosecutor in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, where he successfully tried numerous felony cases before both judges and juries.
For the past 10 years, he has authored the Massachusetts Superior Court jury instructions for defamation, intentional inflictions of emotional distress, and privacy claims as published in the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's Massachusetts Superior Court Civil Practice Jury Instructions. Joe is also currently the co-editor of that publication. Additionally, Joe serves on the Board of Trustees for Beth Israel Deaconess-Hospital Needham and is a member of the hospital's Compliance Committee and Community Relations Committee.
Joe has the honor of an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a Super Lawyer by Massachusetts Super Lawyers and Boston Magazine. His trial and appellate success has also been recognized by Benchmark Litigation.
He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Massachusetts state courts and Texas state courts. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association. He received his B.A., cum laude, from Gettysburg College (1993) and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School (1996).