Michael P. Thornton – Partner Attorney
Boston, Massachusetts Attorney
Well I was motivated pretty early, middle school, high school, by reading books about lawyers like Clarence Darrow. So I wasn’t just motivated to get into law, I wanted to be a trial lawyer and I wanted to have that ability to help people in great need by protecting their rights and protecting their well being. That’s something I always wanted.
Our law firm started, as most do, as a small firm, two lawyers, a secretary and a paralegal in 1978. Kind of growing steadily through the years to our current size which is about 20 lawyers – that varies a little bit but not much – and about 75 people all together here in Boston.
One of the things that’s unusual about our law firm is that we have so much longevity among the lawyers and actually the staff at our office. People don’t leave very often. We get very good people and they tend to stay and stay and stay. Most of our, I say a good portion of our staff and lawyers have been with the firm for over 20 years and that experience is a big benefit for our clients.
The nature of our practice has been the same from the beginning. We represent only plaintiffs, that is people or cities or states, or countries; generally people, individuals who have been injured or their families have been injured because of the negligence of someone else – generally a corporate someone else, corporations.
One thing we found out beginning with asbestos a long time ago: Corporations stop poisoning people with their substances when it becomes more expensive to poison people that to not and when we sue them and make them pay damages and compensation to their victims it becomes more expensive for them and no longer profitable for them and they stop. One way or the other, we’re very determined, we’re very tenacious about that. As a result I think by the time you get up to trial it should be pretty evident what the result’s going to be and most defendants prefer to settle rather than go through a trial with us.
Its been very gratifying to be a lawyer at this law firm because we have had a lot of successful cases, and the personal satisfaction that you get out of being able to help someone really in need, really deserving of help is immense.
I’d like to think that clients choose us – and they have lots of other options among law firms to pick from. I’d like to think that they choose us because we are experienced; we have a extremely successful track record – we almost always win our cases if we accept them. People that work here have been here for a long time and we assign teams and know exactly what they’re doing in the area that you’re in to produce a successful result. And we care a lot about our clients: it means everything to us. Their well-being means everything to us and their case means everything to us. We are very competitive and we will move heaven and earth to make sure that our clients – each and every one of our clients are adequately compensated.
