Raymond P. Ausrotas

Career Overview

Ray Ausrotas, founding partner of Arrowood LLP, has a diverse commercial and general litigation practice, representing individuals, shareholders and corporate officers, and governmental and business entities, in a broad variety of disputes (including over non-competes and trade secrets) and administrative agency matters.

Ray handles all manner of claims through trial and appeal, in state and federal court, including those sounding in breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of confidential information, unfair trade, tortious interference, negligence, and professional liability. He also helps his clients seek relief in alternative dispute resolution forums such as arbitration and mediation, and has performed internal and employment investigations on their behalf.

Ray has often handled cases outside of Massachusetts in New England and several other locations and tribunals, including Delaware Chancery Court, the London Court of International Arbitration, and specialized business courts in North Carolina, Maine and Georgia. Over his nearly 25 years of practice, he has built a network of trusted colleagues to assist on matters as local counsel in jurisdictions around the country, including California, Florida, Texas and New York.

Before starting Arrowood LLP in 2011, he was a partner at Todd & Weld LLP in Boston, and an associate attorney at the law firm Jackson & Campbell in Washington DC, where he first started practicing in the late 1990s after law school.

Ray is the lead author of both Massachusetts Civil Trial Practice and Massachusetts Pretrial Practice, published by LexisNexis as part of its practice guide series. Each book is regularly updated and provides, in a single source, a practical task-oriented guide to many technical and legal aspects of civil trials and pretrial practice in Massachusetts state courts. Both volumes have been in print for over a decade.

He has been named to both the “Top 100 New England” and “Top 100 Massachusetts” Super Lawyers lists each year since 2014, in the areas of Business Litigation and General Litigation, after having been recognized by that publication (including as a “Rising Star”) in prior years.

Since 2017, Ray has also been recognized nationally by Best Lawyers®, a peer review organization with an over thirty-year history, in the areas of Commercial Litigation and Litigation – Regulatory Enforcement, and was named the 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” for Boston in the latter category.

He has served multiple times as a Trial Advisor for the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School, and for a semester as an adjunct instructor faculty member on appellate practice at New England School of Law (now New England Law), and guest lectured at Boston University School of Law on admissibility of electronic evidence.

As listed in more detail below, he has chaired and participated as a panel member on several statewide CLE presentations, and authored published articles in legal publications, as well as newspaper columns on current legal issues.

A member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, Ray served as the organization’s Chair of the Civil Litigation Section during its 2011-2012 term. He is also a member of the American Bar Association and Boston Bar Association.

Prior to attending George Washington University Law School, Ray worked as an assistant cross country coach at Brown University (where he received his undergraduate degree in English with honors), and as a staff member for both Congressional and Massachusetts legislative committees. His policy work was focused in the areas of science and technology, campaign finance, voter registration and ballot access, as well as state ethics and conflict-of-interest laws.

Notable Cases

Ray has twice been trial counsel on “Top Ten” verdicts awarded for the year in Massachusetts:

• In 2019, with Ed Foye of Arrowood LLP, Ray was lead attorney on a complex jury trial involving both direct and derivative shareholder claims, sounding in breach of fiduciary duty. Following three weeks of evidence and testimony, the jury awarded a favorable $16 Million verdict, which was increased to a $25 Million judgment with mandatory interest. The verdict was one of the “Top 10” awarded by a jury in Massachusetts in 2019 – and the only business dispute among the Top 10. The result was summarily affirmed by the Appeals Court in an unpublished decision in December of 2021.
• In 2006, with partner Lisa G. Arrowood as first-chair, and their former colleague Nick Carter, Ray tried a case which recovered the 10th largest jury verdict that year on behalf of an autistic boy, against his school’s medical director, as well as various administrators and teachers, arising out of physical and emotional abuse. The $2 Million award was delivered following a six-week jury trial.

Reported decisions on which Ray was lead counsel include:

• Future St. Ltd. V. Big Belly Solar, LLC, 2020 U.S. Dist LEXIS 136999 (D. Mass. 2020) In a case a legal commentator recognized as “one of the first cases to consider the defense based on COVID-19,” Court denied opposing side’s attempt to avoid its contractual obligations on force majeure grounds, and entered an injunction – including a three year noncompete provision – in favor of client (a worldwide leading provider of solar-powered intelligent waste and recycling bins) against licensee.
• Techtarget, Inc. v. Spark Design, LLC, et al., 746 F. Supp. 2d 353 (D. Mass. 2010). Court granted dismissal of case in favor of client, an investor in a distressed company, for failure to allege sufficient facts to either pierce corporate veil or establish promissory estoppel.
• Confederate Motors, Inc. v. Terny, 831 F. Supp. 2d 414 (D. Mass. July 18, 2011). Court denied opposing side’s dismissal motion attempting to enforce settlement, allowing client’s counterclaims — sounding in breach of fiduciary duty and violation of securities laws — to continue.
• Id., 859 F. Supp. 2d 181 (D. Mass. 2012). Court found client, former Director of publicly-traded company, to be entitled to advancement of fees under Delaware law as to defense of qualifying counts.