HCC is proud congratulate James Ruggieri and Melissa Horne who were both honored yesterday at Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly’s annual “Excellence in the Law” awards reception held at the Crown Plaza at the Crossings in Warwick.

Mr. Ruggieri, HCC’s managing partner, was inducted into Rhode Island Lawyer’s Weekly’s Hall of Fame. This honor is reserved for senior attorneys whose careers have left a positive and lasting impact on the law and the state’s legal community. Mr. Ruggieri was recognized for, among other things, his service as defense liaison counsel in the landmark Station Nightclub Fire mass tort litigation, his 2022 victory in the “RhodeWorks” truck tolling litigation, which tested the limits of the rarely-litigated “dormant Commerce Clause” to the United States Constitution, his service on the Board of Directors for the Roger Williams School of Law, and his role as a Sustaining Member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC), a specialty bar association focused on emerging issues in product liability law throughout the United States. In accepting the award, Mr. Ruggieri was asked what advice he would give to young lawyers who hope to leave their own mark on profession. His answer was simple: “Find your passion. Work hard. Be prepared.”

Ms. Horne, of counsel at HCC, was named Rhode Island Lawyer’s Weekly’s Lawyer of the Year. This prestigious award is given to Rhode Island attorneys who have prevailed in a recent, high-profile case with significant implications for Rhode Island law or practice.

Ms. Horne was honored for her stunning $1.7 million plaintiff’s verdict last year in Glassie v. Doucette, a complex and long-running trust and estates case. Over 11 years and litigation in two states, including multiple trips through every level of the Rhode Island court system—Probate Court to Superior Court to Supreme Court, and back again—Ms. Horne fought to correct the under-funding of a trust that had been left to her client by her client’s late father, a successful Newport entrepreneur. With prejudgment interest added, the $1.7 million verdict that Ms. Horne obtained from a Kent County jury amounted to a nearly $3 million judgment. Asked to reflect on the case, Ms. Horne said: “I’m not sure I’ve had a case like this before or will have another one like it. There has been a whole set of circumstances that have coalesced to allow this case to be what it was, from the length to the complication, to the litigation in multiple courts, to the personal nature of the issues.”