Lenny Kesten is a founding partner at Brody, Hardoon, Perkins and Kesten, LLP. Named one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Top Ten lawyers of 2001, Mr. Kesten has tried over one hundred jury trials in the Massachusetts Superior Courts and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In one of those cases, he won $4.85 million for his clients -- the largest known award for emotional distress damages.

A number of Mr. Kesten’s cases, in the areas of employment discrimination, search and seizure, the public duty rule and police use of force, have resulted in precedent-setting decisions in the Supreme Judicial Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

Practice Areas

Mr. Kesten leads BHPK’s municipal liability practice. He has represented dozens of municipalities in Massachusetts and tried more than fifty municipal liability cases. Matters handled range from alleged civil rights violations to employment law and land use. He has also earned multi-million dollar awards on behalf of plaintiffs. Representative cases include:

• Wrongful discharge. A teacher claimed her firing violated her constitutional right to association with her boyfriend, who regularly waited for her in the parking lot after school. She believed she had been fired because her boyfriend was on trial for molesting a child and the school did not want him on school grounds. Arguing that the school district had acted appropriately, Mr. Kesten convinced a federal jury to find in favor of the school district.
• Emotional distress. An arrestee claimed she had been injured during her arrest and strip searched while a male lieutenant watched. Following a trial in federal court in which Mr. Kesten proved the plaintiff had fabricated the events, a jury found in favor of the police department.
• Excessive force. A drunk driving arrestee claimed police used excessive force in subduing him with pepper spray when he became unruly at the police station. Following a trial in federal court in which Mr. Kesten represented the police, a jury found in favor of the police.
• Exigent circumstances. Homeowners sued town and police who entered their home without a search warrant to break up an underage drinking party. A jury found in favor of the town and police, represented by Mr. Kesten. The judge hearing the case agreed with Mr. Kesten that underage drinking constituted an exigent circumstance that eliminated the need for a search warrant.
• Sexual harassment. A police lieutenant, his wife and three police officers sued the town, police department and selectmen alleging sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, and retaliation. On behalf of the town, Mr. Kesten filed a counterclaim against the plaintiffs. Following a trial in federal court, the jury found for the town, police department and selectmen and awarded them $35,000 in damages and $200,000 in attorney’s fees.
• Defamation. Mr. Kesten represented a state police trooper who sued a female lawyer after she claimed he had fondled her breast and asked her for sex during a drunk driving arrest. The lawyer made the claim after receiving the trooper’s incident report, which included a statement she made during the arrest about one of her clients. The client, British nanny Louise Woodward, had been convicted of murdering 18-month-old Matthew Eappen. A Superior Court jury found for the trooper and awarded him $208,000.
• Sexual harassment. Representing an employee harassed by her co-workers, Mr. Kesten argued that the conduct constituted a continuing violation of Massachusetts discrimination laws. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed and issued a landmark decision in Cuddyer v. Stop and Shop, 750 N.E.2d 928 (Mass. 2001). Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly called the opinion the “most important sex-harassment decision of the year.”

Prior Experience

Mr. Kesten was an associate, and then a partner, with Morrison, Mahoney and Miller before founding BHPK. He concentrated in the representation of municipal officials, school personnel and police officers throughout Massachusetts. Before law school, Mr. Kesten worked as a special education teacher in Boston and a prison administrator in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Presentations

Mr. Kesten has lectured extensively on civil rights, employment law, premises liability, and trial advocacy. He presents regularly at events sponsored by the following organizations:

• Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council
• Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE)
• Defense Research Institute
• Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association
• Massachusetts Municipal Association
• National Advisory Board for Public Entity Insurance

Awards

In 2001, Mr. Kesten was named one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s Top Ten Lawyers of the Year. The award recognized Mr. Kesten’s accomplishments that year, which included the fourth largest verdict in Massachusetts and precedent-setting decisions in the Supreme Judicial Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly also recognized Mr. Kesten in 1999 because he won six jury trials for his clients, including one in which he successfully obtained $200,000 in a counterclaim in a case where the plaintiffs had demanded millions. The United States Police Canine Association has honored Mr. Kesten for his work on behalf of police use of canines.

Education

Mr. Kesten graduated from the University of Connecticut, and received his law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1983. He also holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

Professional and Community Affiliations

Mr. Kesten is a member of the bar in Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Association of Trial Attorneys, the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association, and the Massachusetts Municipal Association. He is a member of the Wellesley Democratic Town Committee.

Mr. Kesten was born in Poland to Holocaust survivors. His father is a veteran of the Polish Cavalry and fought in World War II. Mr. Kesten emigrated to Israel, and then to the United States, when he was ten years old.