Nettl, Philip

Heidi A. Nadel is a partner at Todd & Weld LLP.  Named an Up & Coming Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in August 2008 for her work in civil rights and diverse litigation, Ms. Nadel concentrates her practice on complex commercial disputes, shareholder, partnership, trust and other intra-enterprise and fiduciary litigation, civil rights, First Amendment law, and appeals.  She has represented clients in federal and state courts, before regulatory commissions and before state administrative tribunals and in Tribal Court in a wide range of matters, including representation of companies of all sizes in complex business and contract actions; representation of individuals and corporations in non-competition, non-solicitation, shareholder and corporate governance disputes; representation of individuals and entities in First Amendment matters, including prosecution and defense of libel, and civil rights litigation.  Ms. Nadel has worked extensively on appeals in state and federal court.

In addition to extensive, complex business litigation experience, Ms. Nadel has significant experience representing clients in shareholder, partnership, and intra-enterprise disputes.  Some of Ms. Nadel's representative cases include:

• Representing fifty-percent owners in a deadlock situation in a sophisticated freeze out and breach of fiduciary duty dispute, alleging direct and derivative claims against shareholders, directors and officers of corporation
• Defending majority shareholder against alleged freeze out and wrongful termination claims filed by minority shareholder
• Successfully representing general partner and majority limited partners against allegations of self-dealing, mismanagement and waste
• Representing Trustee, executor and shareholder in complex litigation alleging conflict of interest, self-dealing and corporate wrongdoing by co-Trustee, co-executor and President of close corporation

In 2005, Ms. Nadel, together with Ian Crawford, won the fifth largest jury verdict in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on behalf of an oppressed minority shareholder in a close corporation and trade secret dispute.

In the area of Probate and Fiduciary Litigation, Heidi Nadel has represented individual and institutional heirs and family members in will contests, cases involving the interpretation and enforcement of trusts, and the obligations of fiduciaries.  She has also handled guardianship and conservatorship matters.

Ms. Nadel's civil rights experience includes her representation of South Middlesex Opportunity Council, a 40-year-old anti-poverty agency in a lawsuit against the Town of Framingham to protect the fair housing rights of people with disabilities.  She also recently participated in the successful representation of a Boston area Islamic group attempting to build a Mosque and Cultural Center in Roxbury.  Ms. Nadel currently represents the victim of a hate crime based on sexual orientation in a civil rights case against the attacker.  Together with colleague Howard M. Cooper, Ms. Nadel represents a federally-recognized Indian Tribe in litigation in the Tribal Court and other forums, and advises the Tribe on a broad range of issues, including sovereignty and other Indian and Tribal law matters.  She sits on the Steering Committee for the Boston Bar Association's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Section. 

Ms. Nadel also has significant experience representing clients in patent, copyright, trademark, trade dress, misappropriation, trade secret, licensing and unfair competition cases, including Lanham Act challenges, before federal and state courts, and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.  She has litigated domain name disputes and has handled ICANN arbitration proceedings for domain names under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Ms. Nadel has also represented a wide range of clients pro bono in litigation including civil rights, professional disciplinary proceedings, prisoners' due process rights and the right of same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts.  Ms. Nadel was co-counsel on brief amicus for the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, 440 Mass. 309 (2003).  In 1999, Ms. Nadel served as a Plymouth County Special Assistant District Attorney, successfully prosecuting a number of cases to verdict in both jury and jury-waived trials.

Ms. Nadel received her B.A., cum laude, in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1993 and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University Law School in 1998, where she was a member of the Boston University Law Review.  Ms. Nadel is a member of the Women's Bar Association and of its Amicus Committee, and is a member of the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association.  Prior to joining Todd & Weld LLP in 2003, Ms. Nadel was an associate in the litigation department at Bingham McCutchen LLP from 1998 through 2003.