Firm Intensifies Law Enforcement Function as a “Private Attorney General”

BROOKLINE, MA — In 2008, the Law Offices of J. Whitfield Larrabee has intensified its longstanding focus on the enforcement of public interest legislation as a private attorney general. We initiate investigations of companies suspected of illegal activities based on public records and private sources of information received and compiled by our law firm. Because of our specialized and intense focus, we are often able to identify patterns of illegal conduct that have been ignored or gone unnoticed by public law enforcement agencies. As private attorneys general, we augment the efforts of public law enforcement agencies while helping our clients to receive fair compensation for their injuries. We recently intervened in a housing discrimination case filed by the Office of the Attorney General. By intervening, we were able to protect the interests of our client while expediting the settlement of the private and public aspects of the case. As a private firm, we are not encumbered by the bureaucratic limitations of government agencies and can often respond more swiftly and flexibly to corporate misconduct. Because we carry out many of the functions of public law enforcement agencies, our efforts often save taxpayers money by shifting the costs of public law enforcement to our private law firm.

The private attorney general concept holds that a successful private party plaintiff is entitled to recovery of his legal expenses, including attorney fees, if he has advanced the policy inherent in public interest legislation on behalf of a private party. Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc., 390 US 400 (1968). When a plaintiff brings an action that benefits society, he does so not for himself alone but also as a “private attorney general.” In Massachusetts, for example, the Consumer Protection Act, the Fair Employment Practices Act, the Civil Rights Act and the False Claims Act all provide for the payment of reasonable attorney’s fees to prevailing plaintiffs. Most state and federal civil rights statutes rely on private attorneys general for their enforcement. When it enacted the Civil Rights Attorneys Fees Awards Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary stated: “if private citizens are to be able to assert their civil rights, and if those who violate the Nation’s fundamental laws are not to proceed with impunity, then citizens must have the opportunity to recover what it costs them to vindicate these rights in court.” Private attorney general provisions level the playing field so that private citizens who have little or no money can still find lawyers to represent them and to fight to protect their rights. Without these provisions, citizens who are victimized by predatory corporations are dependant on slow, unresponsive and even hostile government bureaucracies.