Tamsin Kaplan ’92, an employment lawyer at Davis Malm, set off a firestorm May 14 with her investigation into Boston Police Commissioner Dennis White’s past. The repercussions from her 19-page report are still being felt as the already troubled department contends with yet another scandal in its ranks.
In what the Boston Globe called a “thorough and unsparing assessment of alleged menacing abuse by the commissioner,” Kaplan’s independent, city-commissioned report provided new details of previous allegations of domestic abuse against White. It also revealed a longstanding “culture of fear and coverup within the Police Department,” the Globe said, and exposed multiple attempts by law enforcement to interfere with her investigation.
In response to the report, Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey voiced her intention to fire White, to which he responded with a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the dismissal. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Heidi Brieger denied the motion on May 25, but the next day gave White time to appeal, which he did. By Thursday, however, a Massachusetts court denied the appeal, opening the way for the mayor to proceed.
Kaplan is a respected attorney who frequently conducts workplace investigations and litigates cases involving employment and business disputes before federal and state courts and agencies, according to her law firm’s website. She has been listed as a top lawyer in numerous publications, among them in Best Lawyers in America since 2014.
Read related stories in the Boston Globe here, here, and here.
(Story was updated 5/28)