Attorney Profiles

When Leo V. Boyle talks about courts and trials, he sounds like a man with an addiction. He's fixated, he readily admits, on courthouses and the dramas they contain. "If I'm on vacation or traveling and I have the time, I'll just stop in and look at courthouses," he says. "I am fascinated by what happens there. There's a combination of order and discipline on the one hand and the potential for dramatic change in people's lives on the other hand. As a trial lawyer, you can rock the boat in a courthouse from within the system. It's where I get to do what I like to do best."

What Boyle likes to do best is to advocate for injured people. His mission is to convey, through carefully assembled evidence, artful examination of witnesses and, most of all, his own carefully chosen words in argument, what it truly means for a client to have suffered tragedy or injustice. Boyle has had extraordinary successes. He can take credit for some of the largest settlements and verdicts in Massachusetts. But when Boyle talks about his craft - his addiction - the big wins are not the measure that he uses to evaluate his career. "I mostly treasure the opportunities I've had to represent some incredibly courageous people. The satisfaction I get from my work is not related to size of the case so much as whether I've been able to make a difference in a deserving person's life."

Since the founding of Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow, in 1985, Boyle has practiced exclusively as a plaintiffs' trial lawyer and has developed a national reputation. He has been actively involved in the Association of Trial Lawyers of America for many years and has held national office in that organization since 1996, including the position of President from 2001-2002. Boyle also served as president of the Massachusetts Bar Association from 1990-1991, and he is a fellow of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers. Boyle has given over 150 presentations on trial advocacy and tort law at educational programs sponsored by various legal organizations and institutions.