Paul Ronald Sugarman

Paul passed away on February 26, 2025 with his family by his side. He was 93, and lived with his wife Susan in Boston and Mashpee, after they raised their two daughters in Lexington.

Born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Paul received his law degree from Boston University in 1954, cum laude, and spent the first three years of his legal career in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps for the United States Army, achieving the rank of Captain. After his service, Paul returned to Boston to work with Attorney Nathan Fink and join with his close friend Alan Chapman in the firm Fink, Sugarman, and Chapman, which would eventually become Sugarman and Sugarman.

Paul was a world class trial lawyer who dedicated his life to representing people through some of the toughest times in their lives. Paul’s trial skills were the stuff of legend, and his cases such as Carey v. General Motors, Griffin v. General Motors, and DoCanto v. Ametek, to name a few, to this day form the foundation of Massachusetts tort law. He was instrumental in the passage of the Massachusetts Wrongful Death Act more than fifty years ago and remained active in legislation throughout his life.

In addition to his trial practice, Paul’s legal career was marked by an unparalleled dedication to public service and the public good. In 1978, Paul represented the Chief Justice of the Superior Court before the full bench of the Supreme Judicial Court; from 1985 to 1988 he served as a member and three-year Chair of the Board of Bar Overseers; in 1990 he was called upon to investigate alleged improprieties in the Boston Municipal Court; and from 1990 to 1994 he served as Dean and Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School.

Paul was also a founder, member and leader of several local and national bar associations and committees, including the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, where he dedicated himself to improving the civil justice system and the law to protect the rights of the injured. Many of his closest friendships also arose out of his bar association leadership. Paul was recognized for his life of service with numerous awards and honors from various organizations including multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Paul’s ethics, intellect and innate sense of right and wrong, justice and injustice, made him a sounding board, confidant and guide to countless people in the community, from ordinary people to prominent lawyers, judges, politicians and businesspeople. His advice was sought often, and Paul privately and generously gave his time and wisdom to those who asked. Paul was referred to colloquially as the “dean of the trial bar” by colleagues on both sides of the bar.

In his personal life, Paul was an avid and accomplished fisherman, taking weekly trips on his boat Arbutus 25 (named after the street address in Dorchester where he was raised). For decades, he delighted in putting together different combinations of people to take out for a day of deep-sea fishing. Many of those people became lifelong friends because of him. He was a voracious reader and world traveler. In Paul’s later years he loved planning and taking trips around the world with Susan.

Paul could analyze and discuss the weightiest of legal and political issues, or the current state and past history of the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, and Bruins. He and Susan were long-time supporters of many charities, including the Home for Little Wanderers, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston University School of Law. Paul also led the way in philanthropy by encouraging others to donate to important charitable causes, multiplying the ripple effects of his generosity.

Despite his many professional accomplishments, Paul always remained humble and kept his ability to connect with people from all walks of life. In addition to his other accolades, he will be remembered as “a damn nice guy from Dorchester.” Paul lived his life as a brilliant, wise, ethical, dedicated, compassionate, and insightful man. He was stoic in difficult times, and provided leadership and mentoring to many that will go on for generations.

Any grandparent would be delighted to be described by their grandchild as his or her best friend, and that is indeed how Paul’s granddaughter Alex thinks of him. He was precedent-setting not only in his professional life, but in the quality of how he lived his personal life. In addition to his family and friends, Paul will be missed by his current and former partners at the firm, and his colleagues in the bar, who loved and revered him, and who do their best to emulate the example that he set of what it means to be a trial lawyer.

Survivors include his wife of 63 years Susan J. (Brilliant) Sugarman, his daughter Amy Z. Sugarman of Newton, MA, his daughter Ellen Sugarman of San Diego, CA, and his granddaughter (whom he loved like a daughter) Alexandra Sugarman of Nashua, NH. He is also survived by his brother and partner Neil Sugarman of Chestnut Hill, MA, and his brother Howard Sugarman of West Roxbury, MA, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at Temple Isaiah, 55 Lincoln Street, Lexington on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. with interment to follow at Beit Olam East Cemetery, 42 Concord Road, Wayland. The service will be available via livestream at https://tinyurl.com/Paul-Ronald-Sugarman-Funeral

Shiva will be at his late residence Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and on Tuesday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that remembrances may be made to the Boston University Hillel via https://tinyurl.com/BU-Hillel