Justin L. Amos
Attorney Biography
Justin L. Amos is a Partner with Pierce Davis & Perritano LLP.
His practice primarily focuses on trial and appellate advocacy in defense of individuals, corporations, municipalities, schools and school districts, and other governmental agencies in defense of negligence, motor vehicle torts, products liability, premises liability, negligent security, medical malpractice, civil rights, discrimination, zoning and licensing disputes, and intentional tort claims. His trial experience includes diverse cases such as retaliation claims, personal injury torts, and employment discrimination. Mr. Amos also represents employers in defense of charges of discrimination before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of Vermont, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. He routinely appears in state and federal appellate courts, including in precedent-setting cases.
Prior to joining Pierce Davis & Perritano LLP, Mr. Amos was an associate at a Boston-based defense litigation firm handling complex medical malpractice, professional liability, premise liability, and consumer-protection class actions. He also has experience defending financial institutions, businesses, and insurance companies in a wide range of complex civil litigation and commercial disputes. He began his legal career as a term law-clerk for the Honorable Ariane D. Vuono of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. While in law school, he interned for the Honorable Serge Georges, Jr., then of the Boston Municipal Court, and the Honorable Robert J. Cordy (ret.) of the Supreme Judicial Court.
Mr. Amos is also an Adjunct Professor at New England Law|Boston, where he teaches legal research and writing.
Attorney Experience
Representative Matters
Bache v. Town of Boxborough, 2022 WL 16551384 (1st Cir. Oct. 31, 2022) (affirming dismissal of civil rights and tort claims arising from a domestic dispute)
Burke v. Mayo, 101 Mass. App. Ct. 1121 (2022) (affirmingdismissal of state civil rights claims arising from denial of a buildingpermit)
Burke v. Mayo, 2022 WL 11424908, at *1 (Mass. App. Ct. Oct. 20, 2022) (affirming motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim for alleged MCRA violation for Plaintiff’s denial of building permit by municipality’s building commissioner).
Awards & Recognition
- Selected to Massachusetts Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” List, 2019-2024
Representative Matters
- Jakuttis v. Dracut, 95 F.4th 22 (1st Cir. 2024) (affirming summary judgment of civil rights claims against Dracut police officer for allegedly retaliating against a fellow officer who reported purported misconduct within the department)
- Bush v. Fantasia, 2024 WL 4234950 (1st Cir. Apr. 18, 2024), cert. denied, 2024 WL 4486408 (U.S. Sup. Ct. Oct. 15, 2024) (summarily affirming dismissal of statutory and constitutional challenges to town’s mask mandate during the height of COVID-19 pandemic)
- Ciarametaro v. Gloucester, 87 F.4th 83 (1st Cir. 2023) (affirming summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds for First Amendment retaliation claims against city officials arising from Harbormaster’s work as an expert witness)
- Gattineri v. Lynnfield, 58 F.4th 512 (1st Cir. 2023) (affirming dismissal of sprawling civil rights action against city and city officials arising from use of a private water supply)
- Bache v. Boxborough, 2022 WL 16551384 (1st Cir. Oct. 31, 2022) (summarily affirming dismissal of civil rights claims and various state tort claims stemming from allegation that police department allowed a jilted lover to steal property from the plaintiff)
- GGNSC Admin. Servs., LLC v. Schrader, 917 F.3d 20 (1st Cir. 2019), certified questions answered 484 Mass. 181 (2020), aff’d sub nom, GGNSC Admin. Servs., LLC v. Schrader, 958 F.3d 93 (1st Cir. 2020) (holding as a matter of first impression that wrongful death claims are derivative of personal injury claims such that pre-dispute arbitration agreements are enforceable against the both the estate and its beneficiaries)
- Ember Pizza, Inc. v. Town of Harwich, 104 Mass. App. Ct. 1107 (2024) (dismissing as moot an appeal from judgment on the pleadings for municipality related to an acoustic-only condition imposed on entertainment licenses)
- Gill v. Armstrong, 102 Mass. App. Ct. 733 (2023) (affirming dismissal based on the immunity provisions in M.G.L. c. 258, § Section 10(j) for claims brought against municipality for a wire cable strung between two trees over a public pathway)
- Cass v. Parseghian, 102 Mass. App. Ct. 1109 (2023) (affirming dismissal on statute of limitations grounds of defamation, civil rights claims, and various tort claims against town and various public and private individuals after the plaintiff was allegedly terminated in retaliation for his efforts to address various improprieties in the football and other scholastic athletic programs)
- Hadley v. Westport, 102 Mass. App. Ct. 1103 (2022) (affirming single justice’s order striking notice of appeal that purported to challenge unreviewable order denying interlocutory relief and improperly sought untimely and interlocutory review of trial court orders)
- Burke v. Mayo, 101 Mass. App. Ct. 1121 (2022) (affirming dismissal of Massachusetts Civil Rights claim brought against local building commissioner who denied the plaintiff a building permit)
- Spectrum v. Fitchburg, Mass. Super. Ct., No. 2485-cv-00511 (Oct. 23, 2024) (holding as a matter of first impression that the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act did not waive sovereign immunity)
Publications
- Desmond & Amos, Are Punitive Damages Insurable in Massachusetts? The Trial Court Says “Yes”,” March 2018 The Standard 12
- Amos, A Rock and a Hard Place: Marrying the Public Trial Right with the Waiver Doctrine, 51 New Eng. L. Rev. Forum Online Symposium 100, The Jurisprudence of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Robert J. Cordy (2017)
- Amos, Who Watches the Watchers?, Note, 50 New Eng. L. Rev. 319 (2016)
- Eldred & Amos, Penny for your thoughts—and my file, The Continuing Duty, Blog (October 2015)