Edward P. Ryan , Jr.

Edward P. Ryan, Jr. is Managing Partner of O’Connor and Ryan, P.C., where he focuses his practice on criminal, civil personal injury, civil rights litigation, and divorce and estate matters. Throughout his career, he has also served by court appointment as a discovery master and guardian ad litem, monitoring litigation for the court and reviewing accounts in estate matters.

Admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1977, Mr. Ryan served as an Assistant District Attorney in Worcester County from 1977 to 1979 while simultaneously maintaining a private practice under his own name. Following his tenure as a prosecutor, he established his practice at O’Connor and Ryan, P.C. He was approved to serve as appointed counsel for indigent defendants charged with murder in 1979 and has handled numerous homicide cases since that time. Mr. Ryan has extensive jury and non-jury trial experience in both state and federal courts and is a member of the Federal Criminal Justice Act panel, through which he represents indigent defendants in federal criminal matters. He has also served on the local Criminal Justice Act board.

Mr. Ryan has been involved in a number of high-profile matters, including his successful defense of a homeless individual charged with manslaughter arising from the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire, for which he was recognized by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as one of its Lawyers of the Year in 2000. In another notable matter, he represented a 16-year-old charged with murdering her child, ultimately demonstrating that her alleged confession was coerced and false, resulting in dismissal of the criminal charges. He subsequently obtained a seven-figure civil rights settlement against the City of Worcester on behalf of his client.

As part of his practice, Mr. Ryan served for several years as labor counsel to the Cities of Fitchburg and Gardner, negotiating municipal labor contracts and handling a broad range of labor disputes as both advocate and hearing officer. He has also represented labor unions, employees, and corporate employers in private-sector labor matters.

Mr. Ryan is a Past President of the Massachusetts Bar Association, having previously served within the organization’s House of Delegates as well as in leadership roles including Secretary and Vice President prior to his presidency. He previously served as a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates and is a past president of the Bar Advocates. He is also a past member of the American Association for Justice and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. Mr. Ryan currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Social Law Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mr. Ryan is admitted to practice before the courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

He earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School and received his undergraduate degree from Wheeling Jesuit College in 1972.