Hon. Margaret R. Hinkle (Ret.) was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1993 and most recently served as the Administrative Justice of the Business Litigation Session which is the preferred statewide forum for the resolution of complex business litigation and commercial disputes requiring effective case management. Recognized as one of the Superior Court’s most talented and respected judges, Judge Hinkle is well regarded for her intellect, experience, judgment, and work ethic.
ADR Experience and Qualifications
- Presided over the successful Business Litigation Session (the "BLS") of the Massachusetts Superior Court during 2009 and 2010 where she resolved complex litigation involving class actions, shareholder rights, partnerships, joint ventures, and environmental matters, among others
- During 18 years on the Superior Court bench, presided over hundreds of trials and handled a wide variety of cases in virtually all areas of civil law including business and commercial, consumer unfair and deceptive conduct, employment, insurance (bad faith, coverage, and subrogation), intellectual property, personal injury, professional liability (accounting, dental, legal, and medical), and real estate matters
- Served two years as the Suffolk County Regional Administrative Justice (the "RAJ") for Civil Business with responsibility for oversight of seven busy time standard sessions
- Handled a variety of complex, multi-party matters, including shareholder disputes and employment cases during her legal career at Goodwin, Procter & Hoar
- Specialized in financial institution fraud while an Assistant United States Attorney in the Economic Crimes Division in Boston
- While in private practice, concentrated on securities and commercial litigation
Representative Matters
- Business/Commercial:
- Partnership dissolutions involving provisions of partnership agreements and allocation of assets
- Mediated a dispute involving alleged corporate freeze-out by majority shareholder of closely-held corporation
- Class Actions involving securities disputes as well as other subject matters
- Consumer: Assessed numerous claims of unfair and deceptive conduct under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act (Chapter 93A)
- Financial Institutions:
- Claims against financial institutions, attorneys, appraisers, mortgage brokers and others arising from complex mortgage foreclosures
- Insurance/Environmental: Various disputes between insurers and reinsurers over allocation of environmental liabilities and/or coverage for remediation of environmental contamination of numerous sites in several states
- Intellectual Property:
- Assessed claims of theft of trade secrets and confidential information arising from acquisition of one joint venturer by a major competitor of the second
- Assessed validity of contract provisions regarding development of proprietary software and cross-claims of intellectual property
- Professional Liability: Mediated claims brought by financial institutions against major accounting firm arising from third party fraud