The American Lawyer has recognized Partner Lisa Pirozzolo as a Finalist for Attorney of the Year as part of the publication’s New England Legal Awards. The annual awards recognize professional excellence within the legal community across Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Partner Daniel Halston was also recognized in the Lifetime Achievement category and as a Distinguished Leader. WilmerHale was named a winner in the Litigation Department of the Year: Intellectual Property category and a finalist in the Litigation Department of the Year: General Litigation category.
Pirozzolo has a general commercial litigation practice, with a particular emphasis on intellectual property litigation. She has represented clients in patent infringement, licensing and contract disputes involving a wide variety of technologies. She has experience handling all phases of litigation, in both the trial court and on appeal, as well as arbitration and mediation proceedings.
In a profile accompanying the recognition, Jeffrey Hessekiel, the general counsel of Exelixis, said "Lisa has a quiet confidence, and she impresses without having to be self-important or needlessly formal. As you work with her, you see that she deserves the position that she's achieved and the respect that she has gained. … She is just a steady, smart, reasonable litigator, and that makes her very dependable."
In the profile, Pirozzolo discussed some of her major wins in the past year, including her pro bono work. In one of her cases, the City of Boston agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle claims that alleged a hair drug test disproportionately identified Black members of the police force as drug users.
"The challenge was to the test and the disparate impact and discriminatory impact on Black police officers," Pirozzolo said. "Our clients in the case were Black police officers who faced serious employment consequences when they tested positive on the hair test. Some of them were terminated from employment, and another was a police cadet who was not allowed to enter the police academy."
Pirozzolo also achieved a victory for a class of hard-of-hearing individuals in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. In that case, the plaintiffs alleged that the DOC had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by failing to provide an adequate system for notifying them of emergencies. After a trial, the department was ordered to provide adequate emergency notifications.
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights which served as co-counsel in the hair test case, said "She is a force to be reckoned with."
Pirozzolo is actively involved in the legal community. Pirozzolo is a member of the Boston Bar Foundation's Society of Fellows and serves on the Board of Lawyers for Civil Rights.