Clarkin, Sawyer & Phillips, P.C.

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Biographies

Leonard F. Clarkin, principal. Formerly a partner and head of the litigation department at the firm of Hausserman, Davison & Shattuck, Len Clarkin has extensive trial experience that includes cases involving products liability, securities laws, shareholder and partner disputes, insurance coverage disputes, employment discrimination and wrongful termination of employment cases. A certified public accountant, he is particularly qualified to handle complicated business litigation. Mr. Clarkin has extensive experience representing attorneys and Certified Public Accountants with respect to partnership disputes and withdrawals from firms and he has twice been appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts as Commissioner to take over the practices of attorneys who have been suspended by the Court. In addition, Mr. Clarkin serves as general counsel to a number of corporations based in the greater Boston area and has extensive experience representing clients selling their businesses.  He is a graduate of Providence College and Suffolk University Law School.

William C. Sawyer, principal.  Mr. Sawyer represents both traditional New England manufacturing companies and emerging service and other businesses in a broad range of matters including mergers and acquisitions, commercial lending and public and private offerings and related compliance matters.  In addition, Mr. Sawyer has extensive experience in the preparation of wills and trusts and the transfer of assets through gifting and other programs to minimize estate taxes.  Mr. Sawyer is a graduate of Harvard College (cum laude) and Harvard Law School.  Experienced in land use law and regional planning, he is active in many civic and political organizations including the Mass. Selectman’s Association and the Advisory Board of the Massachusetts’s Water Resource Authority. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regional Councils and Board of Trustees of the Mass. Convention Center.  He has also run for Mass. Attorney General and has been a candidate for Congress in the 5^th Congressional District.  He is a member of the American Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association. He has served as a director and past president of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.  He also serves on a number of corporate Boards of Directors.

Asa E. Phillips III, principal.  Asa Phillips’ practice encompasses general business and corporate matters, estate planning, estate and trust administration and real estate matters. During his more than fifteen years in practice he has handled: leveraged buy-outs; mergers; acquisitions; divestitures; securities law compliance; environmental matters; corporate and residential real estate matters; real estate development projects; and estate planning and administration.  Mr. Phillips graduated from Noble and Greenough School and Middlebury College (cum laude and with high honors in English Literature) and received his law degree cum laude from Suffolk University Law School. While in law school Mr. Phillips served as a director of the Executive Moot Court Board and was published in the Suffolk University Law Review.  Following law school he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Daniel E. Wathen and the Honorable David A. Nichols, Associate Justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.  Mr. Phillips is general counsel to and a director of a number of Massachusetts businesses and is actively involved in civic and charitable matters in the Greater Boston area, including serving as a director of several non-profit organizations.  He is a member of the bar of the states of Maine and Massachusetts and a member of the American, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.

John R. Cavanaugh, partner.  John R. Cavanaugh focuses his practice in the area of civil litigation.  He received his B.S. with distinction from Babson College and received his J.D. cum laude from Boston University School of Law.  Mr. Cavanaugh is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.  He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association.

Sarah J. O'Leary, associate. Sarah’s practice is focused in the areas of estate planning, estate settlement and trust administration.  Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Syracuse University in 1988 and an M.B.A. from Syracuse University in 1994. Prior to attending law school Sarah had a successful fourteen-year career as a financial management consultant in the health care field.  Sarah received her Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School in 2004. Sarah is a member of the Estate and Trust Section of the Boston Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Estate Planning Council.

Pamela J. Anderson, of counsel.  Before joining the firm, Pam Anderson spent 18 years (11 as a director) with Powers & Hall, a medium-sized Boston law firm specializing in business, real estate, finance and securities law. Ms. Anderson provides counsel to public companies in the high-tech industry, and to closely-held businesses, start-up companies and hospitals regarding asset transfers, merger/acquisitions, financing, day-to-day management, contracting, employment, litigation, shareholder control and ownership, liquidation, corporate restructuring, financial reorganization and downsizing.  She has performed extensive Federal and state securities law work for public and private companies, including work in connection with transactions (including IPOs), with transaction values up to $375 million. In addition she has devoted substantial time to the structuring of finance transactions representing lenders, venture capitalists and companies in complex multi-million dollar business/real estate transactions, preferred stock investments, technology transfers, joint ventures, with environmental, public finance, and workout components (LBOs to $85 million).  Ms. Anderson has worked in the area of real estate nationwide, including purchase and sales up to $53 million (office buildings, commercial, shopping centers, multi-family residential and industrial complexes, and land), leasing, development, construction, condominium and planned use development, with environmental, conservation, zoning, complex title and other land use issues, Land Court filings, zoning and environmental opinions, syndications, foreclosures, receiverships, and management of real estate agents, appraisers, auctioneers, environmental and other consultants. Her practice has also encompassed family estate planning and asset management (personal, business and real estate issues) regarding succession and wealth transfers, serving as family trustee (including foreigners with US assets), guardianships, conservatorships, transfers to charities and conservation groups.  Ms. Anderson graduated from Tufts University (B.A. 1973, English cum laude with honors in Political Science) and received her law degree from Boston College Law School.  She is active in civic and charitable causes in the Greater Boston area and on Martha’s Vineyard and has frequently served as a lecturer in continuing legal education programs.