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Joseph D. Steinfield Partner

Joseph D. Steinfield is a trial lawyer, teacher, and writer. Over the span of more than four decades, he has represented clients in a wide variety of cases, including complex business disputes, First Amendment litigation, construction cases, fraud and chapter 93A cases, intellectual property disputes, wrongful death cases, section 1983 civil rights claims, and commercial disputes of all types. Joe has argued many appeals in both state and federal courts, including the First and Second Circuits, the Massachusetts Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Many of his appellate cases have established important precedents under both state and federal law.

Joe has represented the media in libel, copyright, access, and privacy cases. He represented a well-known magazine in a landmark case in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a claim of First Amendment protection for parody. He represented a major Boston newspaper in a leading First Circuit case granting access rights. On behalf of a New Hampshire newspaper, he persuaded the New Hampshire Supreme Court to adopt novel procedures under the state’s “Right-to-Know” law. In 2007, he represented a television network in a high-profile defamation case, and in 2010 he successfully represented a public television station in a case under the Connecticut shield law.  Joe is a member of the Judiciary-Media Committee of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

He has appeared many times in Puerto Rico federal court.  From 1998 to 2000, Joe represented the Governor of Puerto Rico and the University of Puerto Rico in two high-profile cases involving claims of political retaliation. In 2007, he tried a lengthy case on behalf of a businessman against officials of the Puerto Rico Department of Insurance. The jury returned a $5 million verdict in favor of his client, which was upheld by the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2000, the New Hampshire State Legislature retained Joe as its special counsel to investigate ethical charges involving three justices of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.  Following the impeachment of the Chief Justice, Joe was named as special prosecutor and tried the case before the New Hampshire State Senate.

He has extensive alternative dispute resolution experience, both as a mediator and as an arbitrator. He has been a member of the commercial arbitrators panel of the American Arbitration Association for more than 20 years, and he has also been appointed as a neutral under the federal FIFRA statute. He has also conducted internal investigations, most recently for a large university.

Since 1993, Joe has taught a First Amendment seminar at Boston College Law School.  Beginning in January 2012, he will teach a similar course at University of New Hampshire School of Law.  He has also taught in Russia as a “Senior Lawyer Abroad,” first in 2008 in Maykop, Adygheya,  and, in the fall of 2011, at Herzen State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg. He has also been a member of the Practising Law faculty since 1993, both as a principal speaker and as a panelist at its annual Communications Law program. He has published numerous articles and book reviews, lectures regularly at litigation and media law programs, and writes a monthly column for the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, published in Peterborough, NH.

Joe has been a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1984 and founded its Massachusetts Superior Court Mediation Program. He chaired the College's Emil Gumpert Committee, was a member of its National Trial Competition Committee, and currently serves as chair of the Sandra Day O'Connor Jurist Award Committee. He served as chair of the Massachusetts Clients’ Security Board, was the founding chair of the Law Clerks’ Society of the Supreme Judicial Court, and is a currently a member of the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Joe is also co-chair of the Boston Bar Association Senior Lawyers Section.

Bar Admissions

  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Fifth and Federal Circuits
  • United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • New York

Education

  • Harvard Law School, LL.B., 1964
  • Brown University, A.B., magna cum laude, 1961

Noteworthy

  • AV® Peer Review Rated
  • 2011: Boston Bar Association, Co-Chair, Senior Lawyers Section
  • 2011: Named a "Top 100 Super Lawyer in New England"
  • 2009, 2011: Named a Massachusetts Top 100 "Super Lawyer" as featured in Boston magazine
  • 2007 - 2011: Named in Chambers USA as one of the country’s leading First Amendment lawyers
  • 2004 - 2011: Recognized as a "Massachusetts Super Lawyer" in the area of Business Litigation
  • 1989 - present: Listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Boston's Best Lawyers (Woodward/White) in the fields of Communications Law, Litigation - First Amendment, and "Bet-the-Company" Litigation

Memberships

  • American Bar Association
  • American Bar Foundation, Fellow
  • American College of Trial Lawyers
  • American Law Institute
  • Boston Bar Association
  • Boston Bar Foundation, Society of Fellows
  • Massachusetts Bar Association
 
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