Laurence Eric Hardoon | Attorney

Larry Hardoon is a founding partner at Brody, Hardoon, Perkins and Kesten, LLP.  Having practiced close to thirty-five years as a civil attorney and a prosecutor, Mr. Hardoon has tried hundreds of cases in Massachusetts on behalf of people who have been injured.  Mr. Hardoon has a national reputation, and he is especially known for his representation of many students at prep schools and colleges who were victimized sexually as well as hundreds of individuals who were sexually abused by priests, counselors, neighbors, and family members.  He was the chief prosecutor in many high profile criminal cases. Mr. Hardoon has argued cases before the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.  

Practice Areas

A significant portion of Mr. Hardoon's work is dedicated to recovering fair monetary awards for people who have been physically or emotionally harmed and helping his clients regain control and normalcy back into lives.  Mr. Hardoon has helped hundreds of injured individuals obtain settlements totaling millions of dollars.  He concentrates in the following types of cases:

• Rape and sexual assault, including:
  • Sexual abuse in schools, camps, and other institutions
  • Rapes on college/university campuses
  • Intra-familial sexual abuse
  • Clergy sexual abuse  
  • Psychotherapist-patient abuse
• Sexual harassment
• Domestic violence and stalking
• Assault and battery
• Automobile accidents
• Intra-family trust or business disputes 

For example, Mr. Hardoon has obtained individual awards of $500,000 to over $2 million on behalf of:

• A woman who was raped in her campus dorms
• A client of psychotherapy malpractice
• Individual victims of clergy abuse
• Family members of a small real estate trust
• A man injured in a tractor-trailer accident

For more information about Mr. Hardoon's work on behalf of crime victims, please visit our companion site at www.CrimeVictimLaw.com.

Prior Experience

Before founding BHPK, Mr. Hardoon was a partner in the firm of Hardoon and Ball until his partner, Carol Ball, was appointed a Superior Court judge.  Prior to that, he was a senior prosecutor in the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office for fourteen years.  Mr. Hardoon founded and directed the Child Abuse Prosecution Unit, recognized as a national model, and implemented standardized protocols for use in child abuse investigations that are now considered gold standard practices.  He prosecuted and supervised over fifteen hundred cases of child sexual and physical abuse.  Mr. Hardoon also prosecuted crimes involving homicide and motor vehicle homicide, domestic violence, adult sexual assault, and armed assaults.  Mr. Hardoon began his career at the well-established Boston firm of Peabody & Arnold. 

Presentations and Publications

Mr. Hardoon has lectured nationally about trial practice, adult and child sexual abuse, civil remedies, and third-party liability since 1982. He has been featured and provided legal commentary for such media outlets as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Magazine, National Public Radio, New England Cable News, Dateline NBC, 20/20, Emily Rooney's Boston, Court TV, A&E's American Justice, 48 Hours, WGBH, WHDH, CNN, WCVB and WBZ. He has lectured and trained varied professional audiences through the following organizations:

Legal Professionals and Law Enforcement

• American Prosecutors Research Institute
• American Trial Lawyers Association Child Sexual Abuse Litigation Group
• Flashner Judicial Institute
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education
• Massachusetts District Attorneys Association
• New England Regional Council Police Training
• Office of the Attorney General
• State and local police throughout Massachusetts
• New England Northeast Regional Council Police Training

Medical and Mental Health Professionals

• American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
• American Psychiatric Association Law and Psychiatry Division
• American Psychology Association
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Boston Medical Center
• Harvard Medical School
• Massachusetts Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
• Massachusetts Psychiatric Society
• New England Regional Child Maltreatment Conference
• New England Society for the Study of Dissociative Disorders
• Pembroke Hospital/Westwood Lodge Hospital

Victim Advocacy Organizations

• Jane Doe Learning Institute
• Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• National Center for Victims of Crime
• National Children's Advocacy Center
• National Children's Alliance
• National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse
• Rhode Island Children's Advocacy Center

Government Agencies

• Massachusetts Department of Children and Families
• United States Department of Health and Human Services

Universities

• Boston University Law School
• Harvard Law School
• Northeastern University Law School
• Suffolk University Law School

Mr. Hardoon is the co-author of "Remarks on Practice Parameters for the Forensic Evaluation of Children and Adolescents Who May Have Been Physically or Sexually Abused", published in Child Maltreatment, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1998).

Education

Mr. Hardoon graduated in 1975, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law.  He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Professional and Community Affiliations

Mr. Hardoon is a member of the bar in Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.  He belongs to the American Justice Association, the Massachusetts Association of Trial Attorneys, the American Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, and the National Center for Victims of Crime.  He was a Founding Member and past President of the Board of Trustees of the Children's Advocacy Center of Suffolk County from 1995-2009.