Born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Paul received his law degree from Boston University in 1954, cum laude, and spent the first three years of his legal career in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps for the United States Army, achieving the rank of Captain. After his service, Paul returned to Boston to work with Attorney Nathan Fink in the firm that he would eventually found as Sugarman and Sugarman.
Paul was a world class trial lawyer who dedicated his life to representing people through some of the toughest times in their lives. Paul’s trial skills were the stuff of legend, and his cases such as Carey v. General Motors, Griffin v. General Motors, and DoCanto v. Ametek, to name a few, to this day form the foundation of Massachusetts tort law.
In addition to his trial practice, Paul’s legal career was marked by an unparalleled dedication to public service and the public good. In 1978, Paul represented the Chief Justice of the Superior Court before the full bench of the Supreme Judicial Court; from 1985-1988 he served as a member and three-year Chair of the Board of Bar Overseers; in 1990 was called upon to investigate alleged improprieties in the Boston Municipal Court; and from 1990 to 1994 he served as Dean and Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School. Paul was also a founder, member and leader of numerous local and national bar associations and committees, including the American Association for Justice, the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, where he dedicated himself to improving the judiciary, the civil justice system, and the law to protect the rights of the injured.
Paul’s ethics, intellect and innate sense of right and wrong, justice and injustice, made him a sounding board, confidant and guide to countless people in the community, from ordinary people to prominent lawyers, judges, politicians and businesspeople. His advice was sought often, and Paul privately and generously gave his time and wisdom to those who asked.
In his nonprofessional life, Paul was an avid and accomplished fisherman, taking weekly summer trips on his boat Arbutus25 (named after the street in Dorchester where he was raised) with a devoted crew, a voracious reader, and world traveler. He could analyze and discuss the weightiest of legal and political issues, or the state of the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, and Bruins. He and his wife Susan were philanthropists and long-time supporters of many charities, including the Home for Little Wanderers and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Paul will be missed by his current and former partners at the firm, and his colleagues in the bar, who loved and revered him, and who do their best to emulate the example he set of what it means to be a trial lawyer.