W. Joseph Flanagan

William Joseph Flanagan has been a partner with Morrison Mahoney LLP since 1996. Joe is a trial lawyer who specializes in civil litigation defense and is a member of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire bars.

Mr. Flanagan was named a lawyer of the year for the year 2000 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly/Massachusetts Bar Association, has achieved an A-V peer review rating (highest) by Martindale Hubble, and was voted by his peers as a Massachusetts "Super Lawyer" in 2005 and 2006 in surveys of the Massachusetts bar conducted by Law & Politics/Boston Magazine.

Joe has had over 75 jury trials in product liability, professional liability, construction, premises liability, and transportation cases. He has defended hospitals and nursing homes as well as numerous professionals including physicians, psychologists, podiatrists, optometrists, and nurses, as well as many in the allied health fields such as biotechnology laboratories, tissue banks, and mental health clinics. Mr. Flanagan has also defended hotels and property owners in sexual assault/negligent security lawsuits. His expertise in this area is reflected in his authorship of a published law review article, Negligent Security, 24 New England Law Review 1193 (1990). Joe is also experienced in food-borne illness claims, and he has successfully defended food service establishments in foreign object/product liability claims.

Mr. Flanagan has handled the defense of several liquor liability lawsuits and obtained a defendant's verdict in a wrongful death lawsuit involving an allegedly intoxicated guest who later killed an innocent motorist in a car accident. Mr. Flanagan has also obtained successful verdicts in other high exposure transportation, trucking, and motor vehicle tort actions including cases involving traumatic brain damage and quadriplegia.

Joe has also successfully tried construction, trucking, transportation, and railroad cases, including claims brought under FELA, the Federal Employer's Liability Act. Joe is also experienced in defending cases involving fire science and cause and origin investigations. He has successfully defended several lawsuits involving large fire losses.

Joe has defended insurers in bad faith and extracontractual litigation, has lectured on the subject, and has authored numerous articles in insurance trade publications.

Mr. Flanagan is a 1982 graduate of Boston College and a 1990 Magna Cum Laude graduate of New England School of Law where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Joe is a former member of the faculty at Stonehill College where he taught civil litigation for 10 years. He is active in the Defense Research Institute and the Massachusetts Defense Lawyer's Association. He resides in Walpole, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

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