Kevin Fitzgerald is a nationally recognized litigator whose practice is focused on complicated business disputes. Kevin is also a firm leader serving his second term as chairman of the Policy Committee, the firm’s principal governance and oversight board, and previously in its Manchester office as the firm’s longest-serving office managing partner.
I have a trial practice, national in scope, concentrated in the area of complicated financial disputes. I have particular experience in constitutional challenges to government action impairing private contract rights and in federal and state receivership proceedings. I recently secured on behalf of national equipment manufacturers a preliminary injunction on constitutional grounds of legislation purporting to retrospectively impair manufacturer/dealer agreements. I have successfully tried as lead counsel high dollar value claims of national note involving challenges to unconstitutional government action, mergers and acquisitions, corporate fiduciary duty, lender rights, class action and insurance coverage. Most recently, I was lead counsel in a complex, multi-forum litigation winning a $110MM judgment for a class of 6000+ health care providers.
In addition to courts in which I am admitted, I have appeared in matters in most other U.S. jurisdictions including courts in New York, California, Illinois, Indiana, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Connecticut and Maine. I have also appeared in American Arbitration Association proceedings in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C.
Growing economic and political pressures will continue to push both federal and state governmental actors to attempt increasingly aggressive legislative and regulatory action in an effort to raise and reallocate private sector revenue and engineer related political policy. This means more increasingly high value litigation is in store for private parties whose rights are implicated by these trends.
Suffolk University Law School, J.D., with honors, (Law Review
University of New Hampshire, B.A., with honors
Harvard Business School, Executive Education Program
New Hampshire
U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire
U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Supreme Court
Massachusetts
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
Kevin was selected, through a peer-review survey, for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2021 in the fields of Commercial Litigation; Litigation—Banking and Finance; Litigation—Mergers and Acquisitions; and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions—Defendants, and was also named the Best Lawyers 2020® Litigation—Banking and Finance “Lawyer of the Year” in Manchester, NH. Kevin has been listed in Best Lawyers since 2011, and was the 2018 Best Lawyers® Litigation—Banking and Finance “Lawyer of the Year” in Manchester, NH. Clients have described him as “a gifted litigator” whose “arguments, remarks, and ability to convey the client’s side of the argument are second to none.”
Kevin has been recognized for exceptional standing in the legal community in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2020 for Litigation: General Commercial (New Hampshire). He has been recognized in Chambers in every year of its publication. Chambers reports that Kevin’s clients describe him as a “great leader,” “very astute strategy-wise, a good communicator and good at addressing any concerns and issues.”
Kevin has also been recognized as a “New England Super Lawyer” in Business Litigation based on a peer-review survey by Thomson Reuters (2007–2014).
Kevin has also been recognized for both his leadership of Nixon Peabody’s “highly recommended” litigation team and as an individual “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation (2020, as well as in prior years), a guide to leading American trial lawyers, describing him as “brilliant” and “logical” in the courtroom.
Kevin has also received an AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rating™ from Martindale Hubbell®, the highest possible rating for ethics and legal ability.
Kevin has served on the board of directors of the American Diabetes Association—New England and New Hampshire affiliates (past chairman); he is president and chairman of the board of the Manchester Community Music School and serves as an advisor to several other charitable organizations. He is a past member of the board of governors of the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association and past president of the Manchester Bar Association.