Grace V.B. Garcia

Grace is the Managing Partner of Morrison Mahoney, working with the firm’s Executive Committee to oversee all firm operations across 10 offices throughout the Northeast. Grace also has an active practice with over twenty-five years of trial and litigation experience, concentrating her practice in the areas of product liability, construction law—including personal injury, construction defect, and contractual—OSHA, commercial litigation, employment litigation, premises liability and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cases. Grace has obtained successful outcomes on behalf of her clients in both state and Federal Court bench and jury trials.

Grace is past president of both the Massachusetts Bar Association and Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association.  She is a continual lecturer for various legal education programs on a variety of topics, such as OSHA, risk transfer and indemnity issues, defending traumatic brain injury cases, complex regional pain syndrome, and trial practice.

As Managing Partner Grace is dedicated to not only further enhancing Morrison Mahoney’s status as a regional leader in litigation defense, but creating a law firm environment that is a fulfilling, professional, and diverse workplace for all of the firm’s attorneys and supporting personnel.

• In 2022, Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association awarded Grace with its “Defense Lawyer of the Year.“
• In 2020, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly awarded Grace with its “Circle of Excellence.”  In 2013, it also selected Grace as one of the “Top Women of the Law.”
• Elected by her peers to The Best Lawyers in America© Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants guide (2023)
• Elected by her peers to The Best Lawyers in America© Product Liability Litigation Defense guide (2020-2023)
• Elected by her peers to The Best Lawyers in America© Construction Law guide (2020-2023)
• Elected by her peers to The Best Lawyers in America© Insurance Law guide (2019-2020)
• Selected to the Massachusetts Super Lawyers magazine list in Construction Litigation (2020)
• Construction Lawyers Society of America (CLSA), Fellow (2018-2019)
• In a case of first impression, Grace successfully argued on behalf of a general contractor before the Massachusetts Appeals Court that the intentional failure to have a waiver of subrogation clause in all of its subcontracts, which the general contract required, was not a material breach of the general contract, thereby resulting in the dismissal of the case. The case is reported at North American Specialty Ins. Co. v. Payton Construction Corp., 80 Mass. App. Ct. 367 (2011), rev. denied 461 Mass. 1102 (2011).
• She obtained a successful outcome on behalf of a California graduate school after a two week trial in the United States District Court of Massachusetts in which the plaintiff claimed breach of contract, promissory estoppel and violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A.
• After 6 days of evidentiary hearing in United States District Court of Massachusetts, she obtained the enforcement of a favorable settlement on behalf of a construction diving company in a multi-party maritime construction case, in which the plaintiff claimed that due to his traumatic brain injury, he was not competent to enter into the settlement.
• Grace has obtained defense verdicts in jury trials in both the Superior Court and state District Court on behalf of several national retailers in claims involving head injuries and other injuries.
• For every year starting 2005 through 2012, Grace was recognized by Boston Magazine as a “Super Lawyer Rising Star,” a distinction given to fewer than 2.5% of lawyers in Massachusetts.