Patricia is a partner in the Probate, Trust and Fiduciary Litigation Group and the Business and General Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on helping families resolve issues involving wills, trusts and real estate as well as disputes involving family and closely-held businesses. In addition, she represents individual and institutional fiduciaries, and assists them with resolving conflicts concerning their rights and obligations.
Patricia also litigates complex business issues that arise out of breach of fiduciary duty claims, breach of contract claims, shareholder disputes, corporate dissolutions, trade secret issues and real estate matters.
Patricia works closely with clients to manage risks and, when litigation is necessary, to implement efficient and effective strategies. She has an extensive track record of successfully taking matters to trial, but she also works with clients to achieve practical and expedient results when litigation is not in the client's best interest.
In 2001, Patricia was selected by the Worcester Business Journal as one of "Forty under Forty" young professionals honored for their community service. In 2003, the Girl Scouts of the Montachusett Council named her a "Woman of Distinction." She is a leader in a number of community organizations in Worcester and MetroWest.
Representative Matters
- Successfully tried a case between two factions of an extended family involving two wills, four trusts, three consolidated lawsuits and eighteen legal claims, including the proper allocation of trust and estate expenses; misappropriation of trust assets; distribution of insurance proceeds; and the effect of the testator's lifetime gifts and gifts of equity
- Successfully tried a jury case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts for fraud and tortious interference with contractual/advantageous relationship against a company engaged in organizing amateur sports leagues, its shareholders and its attorney; prevailed in the appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; spearheaded collection efforts resulting in full satisfaction of the judgment
- Successfully defended beneficiaries of a trust who were sued by a family member who sought ownership of trust real estate. Legal issues raised at trial included judicial estoppel, laches, the statute of frauds, the statute of wills, the canons of ethics, the disciplinary rules, adverse possession, constructive trust, fiduciary duty and the attorney-client privilege.
- Prevailed in a trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of a company that provides licensure and educational services to financial institutions against allegations, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary and equitable claims, initiated by a sales and marketing company after termination of the relationship for poor performance
- Negotiated a resolution to a long-term dispute among siblings by forcing the sale of real estate through a petition to partition, by filing suit against an escrow agent for breach of fiduciary duty and by cooperating with the court-appointed commissioner's plan to break an impasse by auctioning the disputed real estate
- Successfully defended a $1 million claim for breach of contract against a manufacturer of computer hardware by serving a motion for summary judgment that relied almost exclusively on the plaintiff's own deposition testimony to demonstrate that the claim was barred by the plaintiff's prior conduct and to demonstrate the speciousness of the claim
- Negotiated the settlement of complex litigation among shareholders of two closely-held international plastics, companies involving various business torts, contract claims and equitable remedies; coordinated the transfer of stock, the implementation of a security agreement and indemnification for international financing obligations
- Successfully petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court to reform trusts to include language permitting trusts to benefit from generation-skipping transfer tax exemption by proving that testators would have intended to minimize taxes
- Secured a summary judgment on behalf of a restaurant in the Superior Court and on appeal before the Massachusetts Appeals Court by proving that the restaurant would not infringe on the plaintiff's legal and private rights and that, as a result, the plaintiff had no standing to challenge the zoning relief afforded the restaurant
- Successfully defended a municipal zoning board of appeals at trial before the Superior Court by proving that the board correctly determined that that plaintiff's construction violated the intensity regulations under the zoning bylaw and constituted a prohibited alteration and reconstruction of a nonconforming use or structure
- Successfully petitioned a probate court after final judgment to reopen a guardian's three accounts by showing fraud and manifest error against the guardian who had mismanaged the ward's estate; filed a complaint for breach of fiduciary duty; negotiated a settlement that provided for significant reimbursement of fees to the estate
- Deflected a co-executor's attempt to gain wrongful control of an estate by seeking injunctive relief and by pursuing contempt proceedings after the co-executor forged our client's name, misappropriated estate assets and violated an injunction
