Regina Roman's Email & Phone

Education: J.D., Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), 1979 A.B., Brown University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), 1976 Practice Areas: Appeals Business Litigation Insurance and Reinsurance (Co-Chair) Professional Liability (Co-Chair) Regina Roman has been the firm's Managing Partner and a member of its Executive Committee since 1999. Her practice focuses on complex civil litigation matters in the areas of insurance coverage and professional liability, and on business and appellate litigation. Insurance Law: For more than thirty years, Regina has been regularly retained by insurance companies to advise and represent them in coverage disputes with insureds and with other carriers and in extra-contractual liability and bad faith actions. She has represented professional liability insurers, excess carriers, commercial and general liability insurers (including carriers covering large and small businesses, contractors, retailers, non-profits, condominium trustees, and landlords), and homeowners carriers. She has drafted and revised insurance policies and endorsements for several carriers, provided advice on internal claims-handling procedures and conducted in-house seminars at insurance companies. She has also advised individuals and businesses on the selection of policies and negotiation of coverage and has acted as personal coverage counsel. Regina presently serves as East Coast coverage counsel for a major insurer of attorneys, as New England regional coverage counsel for a national professional liability carrier, and as primary coverage counsel for the largest homeowners? carrier in Massachusetts. She also handles the defense of high-profile and major exposure cases for several of her insurance clients. Professional Liability and Business Litigation: Regina frequently advises and represents attorneys in professional liability suits. She has handled such cases for numerous carriers and has acted as personal counsel for insured attorneys and monitoring counsel for insurers in complex cases. A number of her cases have included issues of first impression, such as the assignability of legal malpractice claims and the standard for determining the propriety of business transactions between lawyers and their clients. She has significant experience in cases involving law firm breakups, partnership disputes, fee disputes and disciplinary proceedings. Her litigation and counseling work in this area began in the early 1980s with the case of Meehan v. Shaughnessy, one of the first cases in the nation to address the fiduciary duties owed between partners in a law firm. More recent work in this area has included litigation involving fee claims and disputes between counsel arising out of the national tobacco litigation. Appellate Litigation: In addition to her trial work, Regina has extensive experience briefing and arguing matters in state and federal appellate courts. She has handled appeals in diverse areas of the law including insurance coverage, professional liability, attorney ethics, product liability, contract disputes, and banking and labor laws. Significant Reported Cases Include: New Hampshire Insurance Company v. McCann, 429 Mass. 202 (1999) (case of first impression in Massachusetts deciding the assignability of legal malpractice). Safety Insurance v. Day, 65 Mass. App. Ct. 15 (2005) (successful representation of excess carrier against primary addressing elements of estoppel in coverage cases). Lally v. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, 45 Mass. App. Ct. 317 (1998) (issue of first impression in Massachusetts concerning the plaintiff's burden of proof on the cause of injuries and damages in crashworthiness? cases). Worcester Ins. Co. v. Fells Acre Day School, 408 Mass. 393, 558 N.E. 2d 958 (1990) (case of first impression in Massachusetts holding no duty to defend or indemnify for claims of alleged physical or sexual abuse). Leavitt v. Meizner, Dershowitz, et al., 404 Mass. 81 533 N.E. 2d 1334 (1989) (successful defense of Harvard professor in an attorney malpractice action). Meehan, et al. v. Shaughnessy, et al., 404 Mass. 419, 535 N.E. 2d (1989) (case of first impression nationwide setting forth appropriate standard of conduct of attorneys to each other in connection with the break-up of law firms and disputes over clients and fees). Frohberg v. Merrimack Mutual, 34 Mass. App. Ct. 462 (1993) (no coverage under homeowner's policy for bodily injury resulting from exposure to toxic UFFI and for economic loss resulting therefrom). Pollack v. Marshall, 391 Mass. 543, 462 N.E. 2d 312 (1984) (successful defense of attorney against claims of unfair dealing establishing standard in Massachusetts for financial dealing with clients). Driscoll v. Boston Edison, 25 Mass. App. Ct. 954, 518 N.E. 2d 885 (1988) (addressing preemption and labor law issues). Regina frequently lectures at continuing legal education programs on insurance coverage, legal malpractice and professional liability, and trial technique and strategy. She has served as an adjunct member of the faculty for the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Program, and has been retained as a private arbitrator in a variety of disputes. Recognition: The Best Lawyers in America (Insurance Law, Legal Malpractice Law), 2007-2011 Lawdragon 3000 Leading Lawyers in America, 2010, 2007 Massachusetts Super Lawyers (Insurance Coverage), Boston magazine, 2005-2010; Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts, 2008-2010; Top 50 Female Lawyers in New England, 2010 Member, Massachusetts's Supreme Judicial Court's Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct (2009-) Hearing officer, Board of Bar Overseers (1998-2004) Rated AV® Preeminent? by Martindale-Hubbell Memberships: Boston Bar Association (Co-Chair, Ethics Committee, 2007-; former Co-Chair, Professional Liability Committee) Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts (former Co-Chair, Senior Practice Group) Admissions: Massachusetts U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Related News: March 24, 2011 - Summary Judgment Victory for Malpractice Insurer SRBC partners Regina Roman and John O'Neill have won summary judgment on behalf of a legal malpractice insurer-client in a dispute over coverage in a fee dispute between a lawyer and his former firm. After the lawyer left the firm with a substantial personal-injury case, the firm sued for a share of the fee. The lawyer sought to have his professional liability insurer, SRBC's client, provide him with a defense and indemnity in the suit, and when it refused brought a coverage suit against the insurer in federal court. On behalf of the insurer, SRBC successfully argued that this fee dispute did not involve the lawyer's "legal services" and did not seek "damages" within the meaning of the policy, which therefore did not afford coverage. The federal judge who heard SRBC's motion agreed, and also rejected a separate argument by the lawyer that the insurer should be estopped from declining coverage, holding that the lawyer had not shown any improper conduct by the insurer or any prejudice to his defense in the firm's suit. The court granted summary judgment, and dismissed the lawyer's suit against the insurer. November 10, 2010 - Summary Judgment for Insurer in Scammed-Lawyer Case SRBC partners Regina Roman and William Boesch have assisted a professional liability insurer-client in obtaining summary judgment in a coverage lawsuit brought by a South Carolina law firm that fell victim to a familiar e-mail scam. The law firm responded to an e-mail purportedly sent on behalf of a Hong Kong client seeking local assistance in handling collection matters. The "client" signed an engagement agreement, and then informed the law firm that a debtor would soon be delivering a bank check for a payment due to the client. The check arrived, and the law firm deposited it in its client-funds account. The next day, the law firm contacted its bank, and was told that funds in the amount of the check had been "posted" to the firm's account. At the client's request, the firm then issued wire-transfer requests to the bank for a total of some $360,000, and the funds were sent to two Japanese bank accounts. Only when it was too late to recover the wires did the firm and the bank learn that the check delivered to the firm was a forgery. The bank sought to make itself whole by taking other funds of the firm it held, and sued the firm for the rest. The firm sought coverage under its malpractice policy. The coverage dispute centered on whether the case involved "professional services" of the firm within the meaning of the policy, whether it involved a misappropriation of client funds within the meaning of an exclusion in the policy, and whether the bank sought "damages" as that term was used in the policy. On the professional-services issue, the firm argued that it subjectively believed it had been retained by a client and asked to perform legal work on its behalf. A South Carolina federal court agreed with SRBC and its client that this was not enough: the evidence undisputedly showed that if a putative "client" ever existed, he clearly sought to "engage" the law firm only for purposes of carrying out the fra October 20, 2010 - SRBC Partners Named "Super Lawyers" Sixteen of SRBC's partners have been recognized as Massachusetts Super Lawyers in the 2010 edition of the annual peer-review survey that seeks to identify the top five percent of lawyers in the state. Many of the partners were also ranked among the very top lawyers in Massachusetts and New England. The complete list is as follows: Michael S. Appel, Plaintiff's Medical Malpractice David A. Barry, Product Liability, Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England Edward J. Barshak, Business Litigation, Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England William L. Boesch, Business Litigation, Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts Anthony M. Doniger, Business Litigation, Top 10 Lawyers in Massachusetts, Top 100 Lawyers in New England Samuel M. Furgang, Insurance Coverage, Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England Alan S. Geismer, Family Law Lisa C. Goodheart, Environmental Law, Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England, Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England Susan A. Hartnett, Insurance Coverage Natasha C. Lisman, Business Litigation, Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England Jean A. Musiker, Employment Law, Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England, Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England Christine M. Netski, Business Litigation John G. O'Neill, Business Litigation Regina E. Roman, Insurance Coverage, Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts and New England Jeffrey S. Stern, Alternative Dispute Resolution Paul E. White, Business Litigation October 02, 2010 - Eleven SRBC Partners Named to Annual "Best Lawyers in America" List Eleven SRBC partners have been named to the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, an annual publication that calls itself "the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States." This year's selections are based on surveys in which more than 3.1 million leading lawyers were asked to evaluate their professional peers. The SRBC partners were recognized in nearly all of the firm's practice areas--see the list below (which for simplicity uses our own nomenclature rather than Best Lawyers'). And Tony Doniger was named in the prestigious separate category for "Bet-the-Company Litigation." Alternative Dispute Resolution (Jeffrey Stern, Natasha Lisman) Appeals (Susan Hartnett) Business Litigation (Ed Barshak, Tony Doniger, Natasha Lisman) Domestic Relations and Probate Litigation (Ed Barshak, Tony Doniger, Alan Geismer) Employment Law (Jean Musiker) Environmental Law (Lisa Goodheart) Insurance and Reinsurance (Sam Furgang, Susan Hartnett, Natasha Lisman, Regina Roman) Medical Malpractice & Pharmaceutical Liability (David Barry) Product Liability (David Barry) Professional Liability (Regina Roman) October 01, 2009 - Regina Roman Appointed to High Court's Advisory Committee on Ethics Rules SRBC Managing Partner Regina Roman has been appointed by the Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the court's Standing Advisory Committee on the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct. The committee reviews issues arising under the rules and proposals for changes, and reports to the court's rules committee. Regina serves as co-chair of SRBC's Professional Liability Group, and defends lawyers and others in malpractice matters. She has served as a Hearing Officer for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, and is a former co-chair of the Boston Bar Association's Professional Liability Committee, and current co-chair of the BBA's Ethics Committee. She also counsels lawyers and insurers on matters arising from professional liability insurance policies. September 22, 2009 - Best Lawyers Again Ranks SRBC No. 1 in Insurance Law For the second year in a row, the peer-review publication The Best Lawyers in America has ranked SRBC the number one Insurance Law firm in Boston and in Massachusetts. Four SRBC partners were recognized for their work in insurance law: Samuel Furgang, Susan Hartnett, Natasha Lisman and Regina Roman.