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. 

• The Best Lawyers in America (Insurance Law, Legal Malpractice Law), 2007-2010
• Lawdragon 3000 Leading Lawyers in America, 2010, 2007
• Massachusetts Super Lawyers (Insurance Coverage), Boston magazine, 2005-2009; Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts, 2008, 2009 
• 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:

October 28, 2009 -
Super Lawyers Recognizes Sixteen SRBC Partners

The just-released 2009 edition of Massachusetts Super Lawyers, the annual peer-survey-based listing of outstanding lawyers, recognizes sixteen of SRBC's partners. A number of these were named as among the very top lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England. This year's list:

• Michael S. Appel, Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical Malpractice
• David A. Barry, Personal Injury Defense: Products; Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England
• Edward J. Barshak, Business Litigation; Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England
• William L. Boesch, Business Litigation
• Anthony M. Doniger, Business Litigation; Top 10 Lawyers in Massachusetts (2nd Top Point Getter); Top 100 Lawyers in New England
• Samuel M. Furgang, Insurance Coverage
• Alan S. Geismer, Family Law
• Lisa C. Goodheart, Environmental; Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England; Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England
• Susan A. Hartnett, Insurance Coverage
• Natasha C. Lisman, Business Litigation; Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts
• Jean A. Musiker, Employment & Labor; Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England; Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts and in New England
• Christine M. Netski, Business Litigation
• John G. O’Neill, Business Litigation
• Regina E. Roman, Insurance Coverage; Top 50 Female Lawyers in Massachusetts
• Jeffrey S. Stern, Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Paul E. White, Business Litigation

For more on Super Lawyers and its selection process, follow this link.

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.

August 10, 2009 -
Ten SRBC Partners Named Best Lawyers in America

Ten SRBC partners have been named to the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, which describes itself as "the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession," designed to help lawyers and clients find legal counsel in unfamiliar places or specialties. This year's selections are based on more than 2.8 million peer-review surveys. Among the highlights for SRBC this year are Tony Doniger's recognition in the category of "bet-the-company litigation," and Natasha Lisman's recognition for her work in alternative dispute resolution.

The full listings are as follows:

• David Barry
  • Medical Malpractice Law
  • Product Liability Litigation
• Edward Barshak
  • Commercial Litigation
  • Family Law
  • Personal Injury Litigation
• Anthony Doniger
  • Bet-the-Company Litigation
  • Commercial Litigation
  • Family Law
• Samuel Furgang
  • Insurance Law
• Lisa Goodheart
  • Environmental Law
• Susan Hartnett
  • Appellate Law
  • Insurance Law
• Natasha Lisman
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Commercial Litigation
  • Insurance Law
  • International Arbitration
• Jean Musiker
  • Labor and Employment Law
• Regina Roman
  • Insurance Law
  • Legal Malpractice Law
• Jeffrey Stern
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution

Follow this link to the Best Lawyers website.

February 03, 2009 -
Court Holds Malpractice Insurer Should Have Defended Lawyer in Sanctions Proceeding
SRBC partner William Boesch writes on a recent Pennsylvania federal case holding that a professional liability insurance company that refused to defend a lawyer in a sanctions proceeding, on the ground that sanctions were not "damages" covered by the policy, thereby breached its insurance contract.