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Hugh J. Gorman III and Jeffrey J. Pyle Recognized as Lawyers of the Year by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

January 13, 2017

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly has recognized Hugh Gorman and Jeffrey Pyle as two of its 2016 Lawyers of the Year.  The award honors the pair for their representation of Federal Concrete, Inc., a certified woman-owned construction company, in its legal challenge to the administration of the state’s affirmative marketing program.  Under that program, a portion of every state construction contract is set aside for disadvantaged minority-owned contractors and women-owned firms like Federal. In 2007, state officials began certifying firms owned by persons of Portuguese origin as Minority Business Enterprises, in violation of a state regulation, and without any evidence such persons have suffered from discrimination in the construction industry.  In April 2016, the firm obtained a preliminary injunction halting this practice, thereby opening up new opportunities for disadvantaged businesses to compete for these contracts.  As Gorman states in the accompanying article, the court’s ruling “really righted a wrong.  Whether it was for political expediency or other motives, the [Portuguese-owned businesses] just were not entitled to this certification.”

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