By
Eric T. Berkman
Published:
August 16, 2007
As
the son of a judge and the grandson of an FBI agent, the law is in Thomas P. Carpenter's
blood. At one point, though, he doubted he wanted to be a lawyer at all.
As
luck would have it, he was in law school at the time.
Fortunately
for Carpenter, he fell in love with the practice of law once he walked through
the doors of Cape Cod's Ardito, Sweeney, Stusse, Robertson & Dupuy, where
he has distinguished himself as one of the youngest lawyers in the state to
negotiate a seven-figure personal-injury settlement.
But
despite his pedigree, Carpenter — now a partner at the firm — had to
work hard to get there.
Young
associates at the firm are not salaried, earning instead a commission on income
they generate. So Carpenter's early days were lean, to say the least.
"You're
basically taking scraps from the partners' table when you're 25, fresh out of
school and don't really know anything," he says. "You get the small
cases they don't want. I always got the toughest ones."
Once
Carpenter showed his abilities on the small, difficult matters, he was given
bigger cases with more responsibility and ultimately began to develop some of
his own contacts.
All
the legwork paid off when Carpenter received a referral from a man he'd
previously represented.
The
man's brother, who worked for a kitchen company, had been critically injured
while helping to unload a shipment for his boss's other business, a granite
company. Carpenter's client was not trained for the task, which involved
unloading six bundles, each consisting of eight 1,000-pound granite slabs bound
together in a wood-and-wire framework. The client was getting ready to attach
crane straps to one of the bundles when it slipped, striking his left eye
socket and crushing his face.
"If
it had hit his skull, it would have crushed his brain and killed him"
notes Carpenter. "If it hit his neck, it would have decapitated him."
Carpenter
knew right away that while the case had tremendous potential, it also presented
huge challenges. It was complex in terms of liability and involved five
well-heeled defendants: an Italian company that allegedly packed the granite; a
Swiss shipping firm that allegedly transported the granite in an unstable
container; a trucking company that allegedly failed to properly inspect the
container before delivery; a crane company that had allegedly failed to properly
attach the straps; and the plaintiff's employer. Each was represented by an
experienced big-city attorney.
"Five
against one are tough odds, especially with seasoned Boston insurance-defense
lawyers," Carpenter says. "It was like going up against a conglomerate
like Standard Oil. Huge firms with such tremendous resources at their
disposal."
However,
all five defendants launched cross-claims against each other. Carpenter took
advantage of the situation, forming an unofficial alliance with the employer's
attorney with the idea of deflecting blame onto the other companies. This paved the way for a $1.07 million
settlement within 10 days of trial.
Carpenter credits his firm's
generosity for his success.
"They trusted me enough
to invest a tremendous amount of money in the case," he says of the
"substantial expenses" required for experts and deposition costs.
"They never wavered."
He also believes that his
youth worked in his favor.
"I was completely driven,
ambitious and energetic," he says. "I've got two young kids, so I had
every motivation in the world to see this through successfully. I don't get
paid a salary — I eat what I kill. So if I did a good job, it would be a
nice payday."
More significantly, says
Carpenter, his client is well taken care of.
"He can work, and he has
a nice chunk of money for his pain and suffering and for his future," says
Carpenter. "And I'm proud to have gone up against five heavy hitters,
stand in there toe to toe and duke it out."
* * *
AGE: 33
GRADUATED: Northeastern University School of Law,
1999
POSITION: Partner, Ardito, Sweeney, Stusse,
Robertson & Dupuy, West Yarmouth
One thing about him that
might surprise people: "I
had a lot of doubts in law school as to whether I really wanted to be a
lawyer."
Eric T. Berkman, formerly a
reporter for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, is a freelance writer.