HomeMassachusettsBostonRobert Higgins

About Robert Higgins

Robert M. Higgins is recognized as one of the most successful trial lawyers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He achieved the state's largest medical malpractice award, a $40 million verdict for a baby brain damaged at birth. In 2023 alone he obtained multiple courtroom verdicts including $29 million for an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm, $28.8 million for a blood clot misdiagnosed as sciatica resulting in amputation, $4.95 million for failure to test for cancer at Lahey Clinic, and a $15 million settlement involving Boston Children's Hospital for a sleep study death. Additional notable verdicts include $29.8 million for a baby's brain injury during delivery, $19.8 million for failure to diagnose cervical cancer, and $16.7 million for failure to diagnose lung cancer.

Named Lawyer of the Year in Medical Malpractice Law for 2025 by Best Lawyers, he has been included in The Best Lawyers in America for 18 consecutive years and is listed on the Top 10 Massachusetts Super Lawyers and Top 100 Super Lawyers lists. He is a 1991 graduate of the University of Maine and received his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in 1994. He joined Lubin & Meyer as an associate in 1994 and became a partner in 2001. He lectures regularly for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, and Suffolk University Law School, and was invited by Harvard Medical School faculty to speak to fourth-year students on patient safety.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$40 millionVerdict

A Middlesex County jury returned the largest personal-injury verdict in Massachusetts history after finding that an obstetrician waited more than five hours to perform an emergency C-section despite clear signs of fetal distress, causing a Dracut boy to develop cerebral palsy.

Middlesex County Superior Court, Lowell MA · 2005Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$29 millionVerdict

An Essex Superior Court jury awarded $29 million to the two daughters of Joseph Brown, 43, after Salem Hospital emergency physicians failed to order a CT scan that would have revealed a fatal aortic aneurysm and dissection in time for lifesaving surgery.

Essex Superior Court, Newburyport MA · 2023Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$20 million ($28.8 million with interest)Verdict

A Middlesex Superior Court jury awarded Steven Luppold $20 million after Lowell General Hospital emergency staff misdiagnosed a leg blood clot as sciatica on two separate visits, delaying treatment until amputation was unavoidable.

Middlesex Superior Court, Lowell MA · 2023Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$16.7 millionVerdict

A Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded $16.7 million after a Brigham and Women's Hospital radiologist read a 2006 chest X-ray as normal, missing a visible lung nodule that would develop into terminal cancer within 13 months.

Suffolk Superior Court, Boston MA · 2014Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$15 millionSettlement

Lubin and Meyer secured a $15 million settlement for the family of six-month-old Jackson Kekula, who suffered catastrophic brain injury after going without oxygen for more than 20 minutes during a sleep study at Boston Children's Hospital and died 12 days later.

Boston MA · 2023Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$13.5 millionVerdict

A Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded $13.5 million (a $9.4 million verdict plus interest) to the family of Amy Altman, 40, who died of a flesh-eating bacterial infection in July 2003 after Dana-Farber oncologists failed to investigate 17 consecutive days of diarrhea during an experimental chemotherapy protocol.

Suffolk Superior Court, Boston MA · 2008Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
View all 7 proven verdicts →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

Suffolk University Law School
J.D., 1994
University of Maine
Undergraduate, 1991

Other attorneys at Lubin & Meyer

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Boston firms

Swartz & Swartz
Swartz & Swartz
$18.4 million · Federal Jury Awards $18.4 Million After Lahey Clinic Doctors Cancel HIV Test, Allowing AIDS to Develop
Sugarman & Sugarman
Sugarman & Sugarman
$30.55 million · $30.55 Million Verdict After Traveling Nurse Failed to Monitor Fetal Heart Rate at MGH
Thornton Law Firm
Thornton Law Firm
$300 million · $300 Million Settlement for Pension Funds Overcharged on Foreign Currency Trades
Breakstone, White & Gluck
Breakstone, White & Gluck
$56 million · $56 Million Verdict for Newburyport Man Left Amputee With Brain Injury After Amazon Van Crash
Sweeney Merrigan Personal Injury Lawyers
Sweeney Merrigan Personal Injury Lawyers
$450 million (sought) · $450 Million Wrongful Death Suit: Eversource Ignored Gas Leak for Three Years Before Fatal Maynard Explosion