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Lavinia M. Weizel

Associate

[email protected]

+1.617.348.4410

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Lavinia’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation across a variety of areas, including securities litigation, shareholder suits and insurance disputes in both state and federal court. She has experience advising clients in all stages of litigation, from pre-litigation counseling and negotiations through discovery and depositions, dispositive motion practice and the appeals process.

Lavinia is also active in the firm’s pro bono practice, focusing on representing survivors of human trafficking in criminal matters and post-conviction relief proceedings. In recognition of her pro bono work, Lavinia was selected to receive the 2018 Richard Mintz Pro Bono Award. ​The annual award is presented by the firm’s Pro Bono Committee to the attorney who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment in the area of pro bono.

In 2019, Lavinia was appointed by Governor Charlie Baker to serve as a member of the Massachusetts Victim and Witness Assistance Board, the governing board of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance.

Prior to joining Mintz as an Associate, Lavinia was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Bruce M. Selya of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and before that clerked for the Honorable Francis X. Spina of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Lavinia graduated first in her class from Boston College Law School and upon graduation received the Philip Joseph Privitera ’95 Award for outstanding scholarship and exceptional contribution to the law school community.

During law school, Lavinia served as executive articles editor of the Boston College Law Review and president of the Boston College Women’s Law Center, and she and her teammate won the Wendell F. Grimes Moot Court Competition. She also worked as a Mintz Summer Associate and was a legal intern for the Policy & Government Division of the Executive Bureau of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. In 2011, she was one of 12 Boston-area law students selected to participate in the Rappaport Fellowship Program in Law & Public Policy.

Prior to law school, Lavinia worked first as the community education and youth violence prevention program coordinator and later as the development director for WISE, a New Hampshire–based nonprofit serving victims of domestic and sexual violence. She also worked as an assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Dartmouth College.

Experience

  • Successfully represented certain London Market Company Reinsurers in a lengthy litigation proceeding in federal court arising out of a cedent’s $120 million settlement with its insured resolving environmental contamination exposure. The matter involved complex issues of allocation, enforcement of coverage periods, and application of choice of law.
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viewpoints

On Tuesday, December 12, 2017, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, applying New Hampshire law, held that a professional liability insurer did not breach the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by settling a New Hampshire medical malpractice suit over its insured’s objection. 
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On September 7, 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court applied, for the first time, a pro rata allocation method to defense costs where commercial general liability policies provided coverage during a portion of the time of exposure in a long-latency disease case.
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On Monday, March 7, 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) rejected the “selective tender rule” as contrary to Massachusetts insurance law and sound public policy in Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania v. Great Northern Insurance Company.
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News & Press

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Mintz is pleased to announce that 31 attorneys have been named Massachusetts Super Lawyers and 35 attorneys have been named Massachusetts Rising Stars for 2024.

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187 Mintz attorneys have been recognized by Best Lawyers® in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©. Notably, three Mintz attorneys received 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” awards, and 64 firm attorneys were included in the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.

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Mintz is pleased to announce that 32 attorneys have been named Massachusetts Super Lawyers and 27 attorneys have been named Massachusetts Rising Stars for 2023.

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Mintz is pleased to announce that 120 firm attorneys have been recognized as leaders by Best Lawyers® in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©.

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35 Mintz attorneys have been named Massachusetts Super Lawyers and 25 Mintz attorneys have been named Massachusetts Rising Stars for 2022.

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Best Lawyers® recognized 108 firm attorneys in the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©. Notably, two Mintz attorneys – Poonam Patidar and Scott M. Stanton – received 2023 “Lawyer of the Year” awards, and 28 firm attorneys were included in the inaugural edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.

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Law360 reported that the Netherlands Insurance Co. and Excelsior Insurance Co. will not have to cover their client's multimillion-dollar settlement with an automobile glass manufacturer over alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act after the Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed a lower judge's finding. The article noted that the insurers are represented by Mintz Member, Founder & Co-chair of the firm’s Insurance Practice Kim Marrkand, Member and Co-chair of the Insurance Practice Nancy Adams, and Associate Lavinia Weizel.
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Mintz Associate Lavinia Weizel was featured by Law360 as among the publication’s 2021 Rising Stars in the Insurance category.
In this year-end piece, the editorial team at Lawyers Weekly highlights some (and gives thanks for) local pro bono efforts. The first matter highlighted is one that involved two Mintz attorneys – Lavinia Weizel and Kerime Akoglu – who helped a pregnant mother facing eviction and likely homelessness. The matter was brought to Lavinia and Kerime though a volunteer attorney at the Civil Appeals Clinic, which is run by the Volunteer Lawyers Project.
Alec Zadek and Lavinia Weizel are quoted in This Winchester Star article discussing Massachusetts Representative Day’s filing of HD.4623, “An Act to reduce sexual exploitation of victims of human trafficking.”
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Events & Speaking

Speaker
Oct
11
2018

M&A, RWI and Transactional Risk Insurance

Proving Your Claim: The Function of Experts in Pre-and-Post-Closing Disputes

Radisson Martinique on Broadway - 49 West 32nd Street New York NY 10001

Moderator
Mar
6
2018
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Recognition & Awards

  • Law360: Rising Star - Insurance (2021) 

  • Best Lawyers in America "Ones to Watch": Litigation - Securities (2021-2025); Commercial Litigation (2022-2025) 

  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: Up & Coming Lawyer Honoree (2019)

  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Rising Star - Civil Litigation: Defense (2018-2024)

  • Richard Mintz Pro Bono Award (2018)

  • Boston College Law School, James W. Smith Award, awarded to the member of the class with the highest grade point average upon graduation (2013)

  • Boston College Law School, Philip Joseph Privitera Commencement Award, awarded annually to one graduating student for outstanding scholarship and exceptional contribution to the law school community (2013)

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Involvement

  • Member, Women's Leadership Program, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (2020-2021)
  • Member, Board of Editors, Boston Bar Journal
  • Boston Bar Association Public Interest Leadership Program, Class of 2018-2019
  • Co-chair, Boston Bar Association, Human Trafficking Sub-Committee
  • Member, Boston Bar Association, Delivery of Legal Services Steering Committee
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