Principal attorney of the office, Paul H. Merry, has had a long career in public interest and civil rights legal work.  A graduate of Harvard College, Mr. Merry pursued a journalism career in metropolitan Boston prior to graduating with honors from Suffolk University Law School.  He began his career as a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court, after which he accepted an invitation to serve as an assistant attorney general in the Francis X. Bellotti and James Shannon administrations, pursuing cases in the Public Protection Bureau, in the Consumer Protection and Public Charities Divisions.  In consumer protection Mr. Merry won significant cases on behalf of parents defrauded by unscrupulous adoption facilitators, students tricked into spending substantial money on worthless post-secondary educational programs, and automobile owners duped by fraudulent auto sales and repair schemes.  In public charities he won significant trials prosecuting fraudulent charitable contribution schemes.

Mr. Merry has served in a range of leadership capacities in the bar, including two terms on the national Executive Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association (“NELA”), as chair for two terms of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association (“MELA”); as chair of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Council, and member of the Labor and Employment Law Council, both of the Massachusetts Bar Association;  as well as serving as a member for nine years of the Ethics and Sanctions Committee of NELA and as chair of the Program and Legislative Committees of MELA. 

As a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Suffolk University Law School, Mr. Merry taught administrative law for ten years.  He has also been a regular lecturer for NELA, MELA and such groups as the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association (where he addressed issues in legal ethics) ; the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Foundation, where he has spoken on recent legislative developments in the employment area; and the Massachusetts Bar Association, where he has led presentations on sex harassment and disability rights.

Mr. Merry has served as a member of the Town of Wellesley Advisory Committee to the town meeting; and as an elected member of the town meeting for his precinct; and on the vestry of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, where he also sings in the choir. He is a veteran of four years’ service with the United States Army Security Agency, where he served as a German linguist and intelligence analyst in then-West Berlin.