Each year, the Adams Benefit brings together Boston’s legal community for more than just an evening of recognition. In support of the Boston Bar Foundation, the event helps fund public service projects and pro bono work, expand access to legal counsel in underserved communities, and drive innovation in the delivery of legal services.
At the center of the evening is the recognition of a distinguished lawyer whose career reflects a sustained commitment to public service and to improving the lives of the communities we serve.
This year, that honor is bestowed on Damon Hart, Secretary, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Liberty Mutual. Hart leads a global legal department that spans more than twenty countries and thousands of employees.
“Damon Hart embodies the spirit of the Richard A. Soden Public Service Award,” said Megan Gates, president of the Boston Bar Foundation. “Whether through his work strengthening Boston’s legal community, expanding opportunity across Massachusetts, or supporting vulnerable children and families, Damon has consistently used his influence and expertise to make a meaningful difference.”
That same respect extends to his leadership within his own organization. As Tim Sweeney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Mutual, puts it: “I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Damon over many years, and I’ve seen firsthand the depth of his integrity and commitment to community. Damon leads with a clear sense of responsibility—to our company, to the legal community, the many nonprofit organizations he’s a part of, and to the communities we serve. His values-driven leadership has had a lasting impact on so many, and it’s one of the reasons he’s so widely admired and respected as both a legal leader and a public servant.”
Yet the path that brought him to Liberty Mutual, and one of the most senior legal roles in Boston, began far from boardrooms or corner offices.
It began, as he likes to point out, in an apple orchard.
Hart grew up just north of Pittsburgh on a street called Orchard Terrace, and the name was more than a coincidence. Behind his family’s house stood an actual orchard that quickly became the backdrop for much of his childhood. When he and his friends were not playing organized sports, they were climbing trees, inventing games, or staging what he now describes with some diplomacy as “apple fights.”
Like many kids in western Pennsylvania, he was devoted to the Pittsburgh Steelers and equally devoted to sports of his own. Athletics eventually carried him to College of the Holy Cross, where he played varsity basketball and experienced what he still calls one of the most exhilarating years of his life. His freshman season included a run in the NCAA tournament and a trip to Ireland, where the team played a series of games against professional squads.
Then summer arrived, and Hart returned home to a much quieter job. He took a position cutting grass at a Liberty Mutual office in New Castle, Pennsylvania, the same company where his mother had worked for twenty years.
“If you combine her time and mine,” Hart says with a laugh, “Liberty Mutual has basically been part of our family for forty years.”
The job, it turned out, came with an unexpected opportunity. Some afternoons, once he finished mowing early, Hart would wander over to the nearby courthouse. A county judge allowed him to sit in and observe proceedings, and those quiet hours watching cases unfold planted the first real seeds of curiosity about the law.
“I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet,” he recalls. “But sitting there, you could see the stakes for the people involved. You could see how the law shaped the outcome.”
Around the same time, another courtroom was capturing the attention of the entire country. Like millions of Americans, Hart watched the O.J. Simpson trial and was struck by the advocacy of Johnnie Cochran.
“The intellectual side of it really appealed to me,” Hart says. “I’m not naturally combative, but I am competitive. The idea that the best argument could win—that your reasoning and persuasion could actually make the difference—that fascinated me.”
Just as compelling was the role lawyers played in guiding people through unfamiliar and often intimidating situations.
“When someone is facing a lawsuit or a deposition or a criminal charge, they’re usually in one of the most stressful moments of their lives,” Hart says. “As a lawyer, you help them navigate a space that feels foreign and scary. That responsibility stuck with me.”
Boston Becomes Home
Hart came to Boston College Law School with a simple plan: attend his first-choice law school and figure out the rest later.
Boston, however, has a way of convincing people to stay.
For Hart, part of that story began even earlier. While he was at Holy Cross, he met Kathy, the woman who would eventually become his wife.
“We basically grew up together,” Hart says.
They married while Hart was in his second year of law school. Today their son Miles is finishing his senior year at the University of Chicago studying economics, while their daughter, Avery, recently began her freshman year at the University of California, where she runs track and studies legal studies.
Hart visited her on the West Coast not long ago and immediately noticed a cultural difference.
“Nobody honks,” he says.
In Boston, he adds with a smile, that level of calm traffic might raise a few questions.
Discovering the Law’s Potential
If Hart first discovered the intellectual appeal of the law as a college student, he came to understand its broader social potential during law school.
A pivotal moment came during a summer working with civil rights attorney Charles Walker, the former head of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Walker handed Hart a biography of Charles Hamilton Houston, the brilliant strategist who laid the legal groundwork for dismantling segregation and mentored Thurgood Marshall.
The book opened Hart’s eyes to the long arc of legal change. Houston’s campaign against segregation was not built around a single landmark case but rather a carefully constructed series of legal challenges that gradually reshaped the landscape.
“That really changed how I thought about the law,” Hart says. “You could see how intentional strategy over time could produce enormous change.”
That same summer offered other formative encounters. Walker introduced Hart to future Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland, then serving as a trial court judge. Hart also attended an event where civil rights leader Jesse Jackson spoke about economic inequality and food deserts in American cities.
Jackson’s point was simple and powerful: corporations were willing to search the globe for new markets, yet many neighborhoods in their own cities lacked access to fresh groceries.
“That summer in 1997 really stuck with me,” Hart says. “It showed how law, business, and justice intersect in ways you don’t always see right away.”
Learning the Boston Way of Practicing Law
After graduating, Hart joined the firm Holland & Knight, where he spent more than a decade working closely with mentor Steven Wright. Wright encouraged him early on to engage with the broader legal community and become involved with the Boston Bar Association.
The advice proved invaluable.
“I found Damon to be uncommon in his judgment, his grace, and maturity well beyond his years,” Wright recalls. “What’s remarkable is that the person I met early on is the same leader you see today, only now with a broader depth of experience. I’ve learned as much from him as he’s learned from me, and that’s what made our partnership so rare.”
Hart joined the BBA early in his career and later became chair of the New Lawyers Committee in 2003. The role connected him with attorneys across the city and gave him a window into the evolving realities of the profession.
Earlier generations of Boston lawyers often described a professional culture where colleagues argued motions in court and then gathered afterward to talk over drinks. By the early 2000s, however, billable hour expectations meant young attorneys often had fewer opportunities to build those relationships.
The New Lawyers Committee became a place where those connections could still form.
It also revealed something distinctive about Boston’s legal community.
“Boston is competitive,” Hart says. “But there’s also a real sense of respect.”
He remembers one opposing counsel who lived just a few stops farther down the Green Line.
“We would fight like crazy in court every week,” he recalls. “And then we’d sit next to each other on the train and talk about our kids.”
The experience left a lasting impression.
“Boston lawyers are a little like lobsters,” Hart says. “They’ve got a hard shell, but they’re soft on the inside.”
Building Community
Hart eventually served on the BBA’s Council and Executive Committee, where he saw the full breadth of the organization’s work. In addition to educating lawyers and convening conversations about emerging issues, the BBA plays an important role in defending the rule of law and supporting a vibrant legal community.
One initiative from that time remains especially meaningful to Hart. The BBA convened leaders from Boston’s many affinity bar associations to discuss ways they could collaborate more closely.
For the first time, representatives from across those organizations and the BBA were sitting together in one room as partners.
At the time, Hart was also serving as president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association.
The meeting led to a number of practical improvements. Many affinity bars struggled with administrative continuity because leadership changed every year. Mail, for example, was often sent to whichever firm the current president worked at.
The BBA offered a simple solution: use its address as a permanent home base.
“It sounds small,” Hart says, “but it was actually a big deal.”
Service Close to Home
Today, Hart continues to carry those lessons into his work both inside and outside Liberty Mutual.
“Damon is driven by a deep commitment to using his skills and experience in service of something larger than himself,” said David Santeusanio, Partner at Holland & Knight and Damon’s former colleague. “Whether in private practice or in his work at Liberty, he has always focused not just on his clients, but on strengthening the broader community. He sees his role in the profession as both an opportunity and a responsibility—to help others, expand access, and contribute meaningfully to the well-being of the Boston community.”
He helped found the New Commonwealth Fund, an initiative created in 2020 to expand economic opportunity across Massachusetts.
Those who were part of the effort from the beginning recall how central Hart was in shaping its direction.
“The impact Damon had was foundational,” said Damian Wilmot. “From the very first conversation, he was part of the core group shaping what the New Commonwealth Fund would become and how it could use its influence. He recognized early on the power of bringing those efforts together into a single entity, and he was a driving force from day one.”
He also serves as chair of the board of The Home for Little Wanderers, one of the region’s largest providers of services for vulnerable children and families.
The organization delivers mental health care and other services to thousands of young people across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York.
For Hart, the work is deeply personal.
“The people we’re serving aren’t far away,” he says. “They’re our neighbors.”
He lives in Brookline, just a few miles from Roxbury and Mass and Cass.
“Our futures are tied together,” he says. “If more kids have opportunity and stability, we all benefit.”
A Meaningful Honor
Receiving the Richard A. Soden Public Service Award carries particular significance for Hart.
The award is named for the late Richard A. Soden, a widely respected Boston lawyer known for his commitment to mentorship and public service.
Hart met Soden twice early in his career and remembers those encounters clearly.
In Boston’s close-knit legal community, those moments carry weight.
“He was someone many of us looked up to,” Hart says.
To be recognized in Soden’s name, he adds, is both humbling and deeply meaningful.
For those who have worked alongside him, the recognition feels equally fitting.
“It’s almost impossible to point to a single accomplishment and say that’s why he deserves this award,” said former Boston Bar Foundation President Stephen Hall, a longtime friend of Hart and trial partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. “When you look at Damon’s career, though, it becomes clear. He represents exactly what we aim to celebrate: someone deeply committed to giving back. Not because his role requires it, but because he understands that responsibility doesn’t end with your day job.”
What Matters Most
When Hart reflects on his career, he does not start with titles or milestones.
Instead, he talks about people.
“I want people to know that I cared,” he says. “About the people I worked with, the people I led, and the people I served.”
Lawyers, he believes, are given a set of skills that can profoundly shape outcomes and opportunities.
“They’re almost like superpowers,” he says.
The responsibility, then, is to use those powers wisely.
His advice to young lawyers in Boston is simple: find the issue that truly matters to you, and then go to work on it.
Because, as Hart sees it, the law is at its best when it helps people build something better together.
