Fleischer, Myra Chack

"For twenty-seven years, the firm has represented an array of outstanding corporations, nonprofit institutions and individuals in highly complex and urgent matters.  Clients come back to us, again and again, because they know that the firm will act quickly to protect and advance their interests in tough going. They know that they will get clear advice and the execution of a well-conceived legal strategy. We know that when the dust settles, our clients must be certain that they've received the very best representation. That's the challenge and satisfaction of our work."

Jonathan Fitch founded the firm with Francis Sally in 1984. Prior to that both had been trial lawyers at the Boston firm of Bingham, Dana & Gould. He is a graduate of Williams College, (B.A., cum laude, 1974), Yale University, (M.P.P.M., 1978) and Boston College Law School, (J.D., 1982).

In January 2010, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly named Mr. Fitch, the managing partner of Sally & Fitch LLP, as a "Lawyer of the Year 2009." Mr. Fitch was one of ten lawyers in the Commonwealth to receive this honor.

In November 2011 and 2012, Mr. Fitch was named a “Top 100 Massachusetts Super Lawyer” in a list published by the Thomson Reuters rating service in Boston Magazine. Mr. Fitch has been named a “Massachusetts Super Lawyer” annually since 2004. Only 5% of the lawyers in Massachusetts are awarded that designation. He was also recognized as one of Boston's Top Rated Lawyers in a 2012 list published in the Boston Globe.

Mr. Fitch has been ranked at the highest level of legal ability, "AV", in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and been listed in its “Register of Preeminent Lawyers,” for twenty-eight years. He also received the rating of  "Superb" by Avvo, a website that provides lawyer ratings and other legal resources. 

Mr. Fitch has tried many cases in the federal and state trial courts of the Commonwealth. He also has extensive experience representing clients in International Arbitration, Commercial Arbitration and Mediation.  In addition, he is a member of the panel of arbitrators of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the international division of the American Arbitration Association.

Mr. Fitch represents corporations and executives in business litigation including, for instance, commercial contract litigation, officers and directors litigation, executive employment and non-competition litigation, and disputes among the stakeholders in closely held corporations, hedge funds, trusts and other private business entities.

Mr. Fitch also represents clients in complex real estate litigation, including commercial lease, title, zoning, environmental, and land use matters. Earlier in his career, he defended the interests of manufacturers and utilities in hundreds of product liability, personal injury and property damage cases. He also represented the FDIC in more than one hundred matters during the bank crisis of the 1990s in New England.

The institutional clients he has appeared for include Airgas Corporation, Tracker do Brasil LTDA (Brazil), VSR Group (Latin America, Asia and Europe), The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, Fluent Trading Technologies Ltd. (Israel), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Massachusetts Electric Company, Boston Edison Company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Education Development Center, Inc., PAREXEL International Corporation, Kington Holdings Ltd. (Hong Kong), J. Baker, Inc., Lycos, Inc., Independence Seaport Museum, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Sankaty Head Golf and Beach Club, Inc. and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

In recent engagements, Mr. Fitch:

- reached a multi-million dollar settlement for our clients who were minority investors in a hedge fund company.  The case settled after a jury trial had begun.

- obtained a settlement of $18,250,000 for our client Kington Holdings Limited.  Mr. Fitch had previously won a partial final award of liability on behalf of Kington in proceedings before an Arbitrator appointed by the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. The Arbitrator found that LoJack Equipment Ireland, Ltd. wrongfully terminated an agreement with Kington pursuant to which Kington was granted an exclusive right to create and operate a LoJack stolen vehicle recovery system in the People's Republic of China. The settlement was reached before the damages phase of the arbitration commenced.

- won an award of $2,943,320 for the firm's client, a museum, against its former president, who had stolen assets of the museum by means of a sophisticated, fraudulent scheme.

- obtained a jury verdict on multiple counts in Middlesex Superior Court on behalf of individuals who had been defrauded in the purchase of a home. The jury found the lawyer who represented our client in the purchase of the home liable for legal malpractice and that the lawyer and the law firm representing the seller had committed fraud. The Court later ruled that the law firm and a real estate brokerage company had violated the consumer protection act, (Mass. Gen. Laws Chapter 93A), and awarded our clients double damages and attorneys fees.  Judgments against all defendants exceeded $4,000,000.

- in mediation, he successfully settled a multi-faceted estate dispute involving over $20 million in assets held in trusts, limited partnerships and a corporation in Central America.

- represented the interests of a Swedish Credit Union in a RICO action pending in federal court in Florida.

- reached an outstanding settlement of an action pending in Federal Court for an FX trading company, based in Israel.  The client recovered the full extent of its liquidated damage under a software license agreement with a Massachusetts technology compnay.

Mr. Fitch's reported appellate decisions run the gamut of complex civil matters; examples are Latino PAC, Inc. v. City of Boston, 716 F.2d 68 (1st Cir. 1983), stay denied, 463 U.S. 1319 (1983), (election enjoined because districts violated one person, one vote), Heghnian v. Parexel International Corp., 2003 WL 25586579 (1st Cir. 2003)(upholding dismissal of employment discrimination claims), FDIC v. Elio, 39 F.3d 1239 (1st Cir. 1994) (appointment of trustee in fraudulent conveyance), McCord v. Jet Spray International Corp., 874 F.Supp. 436 (1994)(enforcement of foreign judgment), Conte v. Marine Lumber Co., Inc., 66 Mass. App. Ct. 505 (2006), Rev. Denied, 447 Mass. 1109 (Sept. 11, 2006)(claims of estoppel by deed and adverse possession defeated) and Poddell v. Lahn, 38 Mass. App. Ct. 688 (1995) (methodology for determining common area allocations).

Mr. Fitch is the author of The Limitations on American-Style Discovery in International Arbitration in Strategies in International Arbitration (Aspatore, Thomson Reuters 2012), "Foreign Judgments Law Due for Update", Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, 41 MLW 159, 2012, and "The Enforcement of Foreign Money Judgments in Massachusetts," 81 Mass. Law Review 65 (1996).

Mr. Fitch is admitted to practice in State and Federal Courts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.