Larry Hardoon is a founding partner at Brody, Hardoon, Perkins and Kesten, LLP. Having practiced for over twenty-five years as a civil attorney and a prosecutor, Mr. Hardoon has tried hundreds of cases in Massachusetts on behalf of victims of crime. Mr. Hardoon has a national reputation, and he is known for his representation of many victims who were sexually abused by priests including Paul Shanley, Robert Burns, and John Cotter. He was the chief prosecutor in high profile criminal cases. Mr. Hardoon has argued cases before the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court.

Practice Areas

Mr. Hardoon’s work is dedicated to civil recovery for victims of crime and discrimination. Mr. Hardoon has helped hundreds of victims obtain settlements of up to two million dollars. He concentrates in the following types of cases:

• Rape and sexual assault, including:
  • Clergy sexual abuse
  • Intra-family sexual abuse
  • Child sexual abuse in schools, camps and other institutions
  • Rapes on college/university campuses
  • Psychotherapist-patient abuse
• Sexual harassment
• Domestic violence and stalking
• Assault and battery
• Medical malpractice
• Motor vehicle crashes

Mr. Hardoon has obtained awards of five hundred thousand to over one million dollars on behalf of:

• Women who were raped in their campus dorms
• A victim of psychotherapy malpractice
• Individual victims of clergy abuse
• Family members of a small real estate trust

Prior Experience

Before founding BHPK, Mr. Hardoon was a partner in the firm of Hardoon and Ball. 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 Unit, recognized as a national model, and implemented standardized protocols for use in child abuse investigations, including the use of professional child interviewers among other innovations. He prosecuted and supervised over fifteen hundred cases of child sexual and physical abuse. Mr. Hardoon also prosecuted crimes involving homicide, domestic violence, and adult sexual assault.

Presentations and Publications

Mr. Hardoon has lectured nationally about trial practice, adult and child sexual abuse and civil remedies since 1982. He has provided legal commentary for such media outlets as 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 to varied professional audiences through the following organizations:

Legal Professionals and Law Enforcement

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

Medical and Mental Health Professionals

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

Victim Advocacy Organizations

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

Government Agencies

• United States Department of Health and Human Services
• Massachusetts Department of Social Services

Universities

• Northeastern University
• Boston University
• Harvard University

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 Trial Lawyers 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 is the President of the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County.