Overview

Ben Duggan is an accomplished litigator and trial lawyer. He devotes his practice to representing the “underdog,” plaintiffs up against corporations and insurance companies and people who have been charged with crimes. 

Ben’s record includes a wide array of cases, including personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, breach of contract, consumer protection, employment discrimination, and criminal defense. Ben has successfully tried numerous cases to a jury, both civil and criminal. He has authored dozens of memoranda of law filed in Massachusetts District and Superior Court and the United States District Court. He has also written several appeals briefs filed in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ben’s father was a Boston trial lawyer and Ben grew up surrounded by the law. He would go with his father to the office on weekends and his father (who never learned how to use a computer) would dictate all kinds of correspondence and legal memoranda while Ben typed. By high school, Ben was drafting his father’s briefs. 

Ben went straight to Suffolk Law School when he was done with college, graduating summa cum laude from Suffolk in 2012. While at Suffolk, Ben was a member of the Suffolk Defenders student clinic, where he was appointed to represent indigent defendants in the Boston Municipal Court. Ben received several academic awards, including awards for Distinguished Oral Advocate and Distinguished Brief. He was also a member of Suffolk’s nationally ranked mock trial team, where he won a regional championship in the American Association for Justice’s annual competition, advanced to the regional final in the National Trial Competition, and was invited to compete, along with advocates from the top 16 mock trial programs in the country, in the “Top Gun” tournament at Baylor University, where he advanced to the semi-finals. For several years after graduating from Suffolk, Ben worked as an adjunct faculty member helping to coach Suffolk’s national mock trial team.

Prior to joining Sheff & Cook, Ben worked as a staff attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Lawrence, MA. Ben has represented hundreds of clients charged with crimes in the trial courts of the Commonwealth, in cases ranging from drug possession to armed robbery to operating under the influence. At trial, Ben has successfully obtained not guilty verdicts on a variety of criminal charges, including reckless operation, firearm possession, and assault with intent to murder. Ben has been equally successful in getting his clients’ cases dismissed prior to trial, prevailing in dozens of motions to dismiss and motions to suppress. And when his clients suffered adverse rulings, Ben obtained reversals on appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. 

Since joining the Sheff & Cook team in January 2016, Ben has expanded his practice to include a wide range of civil litigation. He has been the lead attorney on several successful multi-million dollar cases.  He brings the same commitment to every case and every client he learned from his father.

Ben’s work has received recognition from his peers and clients, including a 2020 “Rising Star” award by Massachusetts Super Lawyers, a “Top 40 under 40” award by the National Trial Lawyers, and an Avvo “Clients’ Choice Award” in 2018.

Attorney Recognition

• Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Star
• National Trial Lawyers Top 40 under 40
• Avvo Clients’ Choice Award