A partner with the firm since 1977, Jeffrey Swope focuses his practice on representing colleges and universities. In addition to representing his clients in court and administrative actions, he advises them on a wide range of non-litigation matters, including student and faculty issues, internal investigations, federal and state regulatory matters, and government contracting.
In his insurance practice, Mr. Swope emphasizes coverage, rate regulation, and lawyers’ professional liability issues. He also maintains a general civil litigation practice for a variety of other clients.
Mr. Swope has served as a trial advisor and judge in trial-practice courses at the Harvard Law School, and as a trial-practice advisor and lecturer at legal education programs for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.
Notable Experience
- Successful defense against a subpoena in the government’s Microsoft antitrust litigation for the research materials of a scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, resulting in the recognition of a privilege for such materials in the First Circuit.
- Reinstatement after appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court of a $40 million health insurance rate increase denied by the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner.
- Negotiation of a favorable settlement of a major wrongful-death claim by a student’s estate against a university.
- Successful design, and defense at trial and on appeal, of a municipality’s no-cost acquisition of the assets of a private water company valued in excess of $4 million through exercise of a purchase option in a nineteenth-century statutory franchise.
- Successful defense in jury trials of complex employee claims for pension rights and wrongful denials of promotion.