Breach of Contract Claim Against Dracut Police Supervisors Dismissed

Michael Akerson

Michael J. Akerson joined the firm over twenty-three years ago. Since that time he has fostered a diverse and successful litigation practice, focusing upon complex litigation and representing both individuals and corporations in all stages of litigation and in pre-litigation strategy. He is recognized as one of the area’s most experienced civil, administrative and criminal litigators in the field of public official misconduct cases. Another large component of his practice is representing individuals involved in serious personal injury matters involving automobiles, as well as those injured due to workplace misconduct, including harassment and discrimination. He also counsels numerous corporations on a variety of corporate business issues as well as providing residential and corporate transactional services.

Mike has tried in excess of 200 cases. He has significant experience in trying matters before state and federal courts, most state agencies, and a variety of administrative fora. He has proved successful many times over at trial and also at defending a judge or jury’s favorable determinations at the appellate level at the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The following case summary offers a preview of the depth of Mike’s experience: A municipal employee was investigated for criminal and administrative misconduct. No criminal charges resulted from the investigation, yet the municipal employer discharged him after a hearing before the City’s Mayor and the alleged victim sued in federal court for civil rights violations. After a lengthy employment arbitration, the arbitrator reinstated the employee, awarding back wages and benefits. The case was appealed to the Superior Court, the Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court and ultimately the United States Supreme Court. In the end, ten years after the initial incident, the reinstated employee received a monsterous back pay award given the arbitrator’s findings of no misconduct and the SJC decision created new case law in terms of employee’s rights. As a result, Attorney Akerson was selected one of ten Lawyers of the Year for 2001 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, the state’s leading legal periodical. In 2002, the Massachusetts Police Association also recognized Mike for his efforts in successfully protecting employee rights in the workplace.

Mike’s cases have been reported in all of Massachusetts’ major newspapers, including the Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram, Boston Herald, NewBedford Standard Times, Springfield Union News – Republican, Berkshire Eagle, Fall River Herald News, as well many other local newspapers statewide. He has also appeared on numerous radio and television news shows regarding cases he has handled.

As a graduate of Connecticut College and Western New England College School of Law, Mike has broad connections throughout the local community, both legal and otherwise. As a result, he often receives attorney referrals for complicated litigation cases. As a partner in the firm, Mike stands ready to usher the firm forward, accepting new legal challenges.

PRACTICE AREAS

70% of Practice Devoted to Litigation

BAR ADMISSIONS

Massachusetts, 1991
U.S. District Court District of Massachusetts, 1991
U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit, 2000
U.S. Supreme Court

John Vigliotti

Attorney John K. Vigliotti is one of the founding partners of Vigliotti, Gambaccini & Akerson, P.C. Prior to establishing VGA, Attorney Vigliotti began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in Worcester County. While with the District Attorney’s Office, attorney Vigliotti was able to develop substantial skills in writing and research as a member of the Appellate Unit and as a litigator through the handling of thousands of criminal cases in courts located throughout Worcester County, trying hundreds of bench and jury trials.

Attorney Vigliotti left the District Attorney’s office and joined a Worcester litigation firm where he applied his considerable litigation skills and legal experience to a broad range of practice areas, including defending police officers through his firm’s associated with the Massachusetts Police Association Legal Defense Fund. Attorney Vigliotti has represented and defended members of law enforcement in criminal, civil and administrative matters in federal and state courts, in appointing authority hearings and before arbitrators and Civil Service commissioners. Attorney Vigliotti’s litigation practice also has seen him achieve great successes in representing individuals in criminal matters, unemployment hearings and in domestic relations cases involving issues of divorce, child custody and child or spousal support. Individuals who have been injured in car accidents or who otherwise have been damaged by the conduct of others, as well as employees who have been subjected to sexual harassment, discrimination and hostile work environments, also have enjoyed the benefits of Attorney Vigliotti’s exceptional advice, valuable legal guidance and experienced representation. Beyond his litigation work, Attorney Vigliotti has assisted individuals in real estate matters and in the preparation of wills and other documents making provision for present and future health care, end of life planning and financial needs, such as powers of attorney and health care proxies.

As a result of Attorney Vigliotti’s exceptional legal career, he has been named a Super Lawyer for each year he has been eligible for his work in the area of general litigation. Each year no more than five percent of the lawyers in Massachusetts are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive the honor through a rigorous multiphase process. Prior to being named a Super Lawyer, Vigliotti twice was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine in 2012 and 2013. Massachusetts Rising Stars is published annually in Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Stars Edition and in Boston magazine and is awarded to no more than 2.5% of the lawyers in Massachusetts under the age of forty who have distinguished themselves in the practice of law.

Attorney Vigliotti is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he received a B.A. in Political Science and was awarded Dean’s List honors. While in college, Attorney Vigliotti also served as Vice President of his fraternity, Alpha Chi Rho. After college Attorney Vigliotti attended and graduated from Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Attorney Vigliotti is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Outside of his legal profession, Attorney Vigliotti has volunteered his time as a soccer and basketball coach for Venerini Academy, a baseball coach for Jack Barry Little League and a basketball coach and board member for St. Joe’s Youth Basketball.

AREAS OF PRACTICE

Litigation
Police Misconduct Defense
Juvenile/Family Law
Criminal Law
Personal Injury/Car accidents
Employment and Business Law
Administrative Law
Real Estate
Wills and Probate

Andrew J. Gambaccini

Andy Gambaccini focuses his practice in the areas of appellate advocacy and civil litigation, with particular emphases in the areas of employment law and disputes implicating constitutional concerns and interests. Within those fields, Attorney Gambaccini has extensive experience in defending law enforcement officers and fire officials in connection with all manner of claims made against them, or otherwise in vindicating their interests in various settings.

With respect to his appellate practice, Attorney Gambaccini has briefed and argued matters pending before the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. In connection with his litigation practice, Attorney Gambaccini has secured successful outcomes in criminal and civil matters in various fora, including matters pending in federal and state court, before state agencies, before state and local boards and commissions as well as before appointing authorities and hearing officers across the Commonwealth. That experience has covered successful work on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants.

In addition to his representation of members of the Massachusetts State Police, MBTA and campus police officers for a number of colleges, Attorney Gambaccini has defended police officers in well more than 140 municipalities across Massachusetts. That broad and deep experience with law enforcement officers consistently includes the defense of officers in civil rights and other forms of civil action in federal and state court, the defense of officers with regard to charges of discrimination before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and in court, the defense of officers during disciplinary hearings at local levels and before the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission as well as at arbitration, the defense of officers in criminal proceedings and the representation of officers who are subjected to professional standards or internal affairs inquiries.

As counsel for the Commonwealth Fire Officials Legal Defense Fund, Attorney Gambaccini also represents command staff officials within the fire service throughout Massachusetts. That representation has covered everything from employment contract negotiations to preemptive guidance and, in those disputes that do ripen into live proceedings, vigorous representation through investigatory, disciplinary and litigation processes.

Attorney Gambaccini is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, where he received an A.B. degree both in history and in political science and where he was a founding staff member of the Holy Cross Journal of Law and Public Policy. Attorney Gambaccini also is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. While in law school, Attorney Gambaccini was a member of the Moot Court Board and the National Italian American Bar Association, served as a lead articles editor for the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal and for two years served as a constitutional law teaching assistant for Professor Loftus E. Becker, Jr. During law school, Attorney Gambaccini received the Federal Bar Council’s Cornelius Wickersham Award in Constitutional Law as well as CALI awards for excellence in the study of contracts, in constitutional law and in an advanced constitutional law class focused upon the structural limitations associated with federalism and the separation of powers.

Following graduation from law school, Attorney Gambaccini served as a law clerk to the Honorable Flemming L. Norcott, Jr., Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Attorney Gambaccini is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Massachusetts, as well as the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorney Gambaccini is a member of the Worcester County Bar Association and has served as chair of its labor and employment section in addition to service within the Bar Association’s Trial Practice Section, Federal District Court Committee and Superior Court Committee. Attorney Gambaccini also previously sat on the steering committee for the Worcester Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

From 2014 until 2021, Attorney Gambaccini served as a hearing officer for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers. Hearing officers preside over administrative proceedings in order to hear evidence and to make disciplinary determinations arising out of complaints of attorney misconduct.

Attorney Gambaccini is a charter member of the National Constitution Center and has sat on the By-law Committee for the Town of West Boylston, the Board of Directors for the Holy Cross Lawyers Association and the Board of Directors for the Oxford Little League, where he has served as the League’s Vice President for several years.

From 2017 through 2025, Attorney Gambaccini was selected as a Massachusetts “Super Lawyer” in the area of civil rights law. Each year, no more than 5 % percent of the lawyers in Massachusetts are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor and the annual selections are made using a rigorous multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area.

Previously Attorney Gambaccini was selected as a Massachusetts “Rising Star” for eight years by Law and Politics Media, Inc. Massachusetts Rising Stars is published annually in Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Stars Edition and in Boston magazine and is awarded to no more than 2.5% of the lawyers in Massachusetts under the age of forty who have distinguished themselves in the practice of law.

In 2011, Attorney Gambaccini was selected by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as one of twenty “Up and Coming” Lawyers. The award is given to selected attorneys who have been members of the bar for ten years or less “but who have already distinguished themselves in some manner and appear poised for even greater accomplishments.”

Having handled a number of high-profile cases during his career, Attorney Gambaccini has appeared on television and radio broadcasts of several media outlets, while also regularly being interviewed by newspapers across the Commonwealth.