Big Boston law firm plans to open Worcester practice, with high-profile local lawyers

WORCESTER — Well-known Bowditch & Dewey lawyer Michael Angelini and several other seasoned firm veterans will soon be leaving to start a new Worcester practice with Boston-based Prince Lobel Tye.

“Virtually our entire finance, transactions, business and litigation groups in Worcester are leaving, myself included,” Angelini — who has worked at the Bowditch firm since 1968, serving as chairman from 1997 to 2022 — confirmed Thursday when reached by telephone.

Angelini confirmed that a “significant” number of lawyers from Bowditch’s Worcester office, including longtime partners Louis Ciavarra , George Tetler III and Douglas Radigan , will be making the move to Prince Lobel.

Angelini, who is chairman of the Worcester Redevelopment Authority and formerly chaired The Hanover Insurance Group and the Massachusetts Port Authority, has for years handled complicated trials for the firm in state and federal courts.

Ciavarra, Tetler and Radigan are experienced lawyers who have been with Bowditch & Dewey for decades. Craig Teteronis, managing partner at Prince Lobel, called the veterans who will anchor its new office “iconic figures” in the city’s business and civic community.

“We think this is a great opportunity for our firm, but more importantly, we think it’s a great opportunity for the Worcester client base,” Teteronis said Thursday.

Asked about the genesis of the move, Angelini said that, over the course of time and discussions, it became clear some Bowditch lawyers were looking for a different opportunity, and also that Prince Lobel was looking to expand to Worcester.

'Things happen from time to time'

Both Angelini and John F. Shoro, managing partner of Bowditch & Dewey, alluded to differences of opinion regarding the firm’s direction in interviews Thursday. Neither listed those differences in great detail, nor did they allude to acrimony.

“There are differences of opinion, and these things happen from time to time,” Angelini said, adding that, in his mind, they are “running toward an opportunity,” not running from something.

“This is not in any way about denigrating anyone at Bowditch & Dewey,” he said. “We, and our colleagues at Prince Lobel, think this is an opportunistic time to build a great new law firm in Worcester.”

The T&G Friday confirmed that Mark Borenstein , an experienced real estate lawyer, and AiVi Nguyen , a city native and business litigator, are also leaving Bowditch & Dewey for Prince Lobel.

Borenstein is, along with Angelini, one of five lawyers the Worcester Business Journal listed as among the most powerful business figures in Central Massachusetts for 2024.

Nguyen has received, among other honors, the Inspirational Women of Worcester Award and the Katharine F. Erskine Award from the YWCA of Central Massachusetts. She formerly chaired the board of directors for the United Way of Central Massachusetts.

Angelini said he and others leaving Bowditch — both he and Shoro declined to state the exact number, though Shoro confirmed six partners are departing — are excited to be part of a new venture.

“The plan here is to build the best law firm in Worcester,” Angelini said, a “full service” civil firm focusing on areas including business planning, financing, corporate law, estate planning and employment.

“We’re bullish about Worcester’s future. We’re bullish about the economy in Worcester. We’re bullish about Worcester being an alternative to Boston for an increasing number of people, and we want to take advantage of it,” he said.

Both Angelini and Shoro stressed that the transition will be done in a way that respects the interests of clients. Shoro said letters will be going out to clients soon regarding the situation.

110-year-old law firm

“The firm is growing — we’re healthy and strong,” Shoro said of Bowditch & Dewey, which has more than 70 lawyers across offices in Worcester, Framingham and Boston.

Shoro said the departures from the Worcester office will pose a challenge in the short term but also present an opportunity to revitalize the office.

He said the firm has been proud of the talent and diversity it has added in recent years, saying that more than half of its lawyers today are women.

When asked, Shoro said the departures had nothing to do with firm finances or with a malpractice lawsuit the firm faced a couple of years ago alleging that bad advice led to a client receiving a $20 million liability.

Bowditch & Dewey settled that lawsuit last year, records show, in an agreement whose terms were not released publicly.

Shoro said he and other partners at Bowditch are confident in the 110-year-old firm’s vision and believe it to be “very well-positioned for the future.” He said the firm is going ahead with a planned move from its current location at 311 Main St. to the Glass Tower at 446 Main St. in January.

Angelini said he anticipated lawyers, including from firms other than Bowditch, would be formally transitioning to Prince Lobel in the next month or so.

“I would say all of us are particularly interested in the Worcester market, and clients from Central Massachusetts,” he said.

Prince Lobel is a Boston-based firm that has about 90 lawyers and focuses on more than a dozen areas of law , from business, family and environmental law to real estate, First Amendment and intellectual property.

The firm has represented the Telegram & Gazette in the past, winning the first punitive damage assessment regarding Public Records Law in state history after a judge ruled Worcester had illegally withheld police misconduct records from the newspaper in bad faith .

Tateronis, who is from Worcester, said Prince Lobel is excited about the city’s market and talent and is finalizing a lease for a space that can house 25 to 30 lawyers.

“When you look at Worcester, it defies the odds in the Northeast,” he said. “It’s a growing population — we view it as a growing market — and as a market that’s largely been held by a handful of good-quality law firms.

“What we’re trying to do is just create another choice, and make it compelling,” he said, adding the firm will primarily focus at the outset on business transactions and business litigation.

Tateronis declined to say specifically how many lawyers are on the roster to start, but said as word has spread, interest has increased, and he looks forward to filling out the staff.

“The excitement within the talent community has been beyond our expectations,” he said. “We ultimately believe that what we’re creating is going to be very appealing.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Big Boston law firm plans to open Worcester practice, with high-profile local lawyers