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Photograph by Colin M. Lenton
spring 2024
For personal injury attorney Matthew Breslin, this brick from a now-demolished housing project in Roxbury, where his beloved grandfather grew up, symbolizes that many things can be priceless—a point he often makes to jurors when arguing a case.
Matthew Breslin, JD ’12, keeps a red brick on the credenza behind his desk at his Pennsylvania law firm.
Sometimes when he’s arguing a case and wants to make a point, Breslin—a personal injury lawyer and partner at Rodden, Rodden & Breslin—brings the brick into the courtroom.
“Often a jury may have trouble understanding how they should put a value on someone’s injuries,” Breslin explains. Jurors might look at someone with an injured back and not understand how impactful that can be. That person might no longer be able to walk, get a good night’s sleep, or even get down and play with their kids.
That’s when Breslin will hold up the brick, which from most angles looks perfectly ordinary. He asks jurors how much they think it’s worth. Maybe a buck or two at Home Depot?
But this brick bears a plaque on one side revealing that it comes from the old Orchard Park housing projects in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which were demolished in 1998. The brick was later presented to Breslin’s grandfather, John P. Hardiman, who grew up in the Orchard Park projects, the son of Irish-Catholic immigrants.
Hardiman, who died in 2016, meant the world to his grandson. He looked out for him. He inspired him. He was the force that led Breslin to Suffolk Law and a legal career. And he taught him the importance of giving back.
Breslin tells the jury, “Let me explain what this brick is and what it means to me. Imagine I drop this brick and it breaks. I can never get it back. To me this brick is priceless. I can’t put a dollar value on it.”
In the fall of 2022, Breslin created the John P. Hardiman Memorial Scholarship in honor of his grandfather. Every year, the scholarship supports at least one Suffolk University Law School student who has demonstrated financial need and is of the first generation in their family to have attended college as an undergraduate student.
John Hardiman never had an opportunity to attend college, let alone law school. Growing up in Orchard Park in the 1930s and ’40s, he was part of a hard-working community just trying to make it, says Breslin. But Hardiman did become a court officer at the Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston, just steps from Suffolk Law, and became a fixture of the court.
It was an era of big criminal trials, when jurors would be sequestered for days in the nearby Parker House hotel in Boston, often accompanied by Hardiman as court officer. “It was a great time to be a court officer,” Breslin says. “He saw F. Lee Bailey and all these famous attorneys. He would talk about Suffolk. He said some of the best trial lawyers went to Suffolk.”
His grandfather’s stories grabbed his imagination and gave Breslin his first impressions of the law: “I had this notion as a kid that I wanted to be a lawyer, even though I didn’t know what a lawyer was aside from what my grandfather was telling me.”
In the more than quarter century Hardiman spent as a court officer in the Suffolk County Superior Court, he became incredibly well-connected. He would use those connections to help others. “He had so many people who considered him a friend,” Breslin says. “He worked with all these professional people on the court, and he was enamored of them and proud to work with them.”
Hardiman became a director of the City of Boston Credit Union, where he would help “hard-working folks”—cops, firemen, city workers, public servants—get loans when they might have been turned down by banks. “The joke about Papa John, as we called him, was that he wouldn’t deny anybody,” Breslin laughs. “He was someone who always tended to see the good in people, and he trusted people to do the right thing."
After earning his undergraduate degree from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia in 2009, Breslin returned to Boston and enrolled at Suffolk Law, inspired by his grandfather’s stories.
Breslin describes his three years at Suffolk as “invaluable.” He gained practical skills arguing on behalf of clients in trial advocacy classes and working with the New England Innocence Project on behalf of people who’d been wrongfully convicted.
His grandfather was beaming when he graduated in 2012. “When I moved down to Philadelphia, he would always refer to me as ‘the Philadelphia lawyer,’” Breslin says. “He was one of a kind.”
Breslin’s father was a police officer. His mother was a postal worker. Between their influence and Hardiman’s, he found himself wanting to fight for the underdog. That’s something Suffolk Law reinforced.
“I feel like that toughness was built and honed at Suffolk,” Breslin says. “I went to school with those types of people—hard-working people going not just because mom and dad sent them to law school, but because they wanted to get out there and practice and do good things. It’s a special place. It’s meant a lot to me.”
Today, Breslin continues to fight for the underdog, handling a wide variety of cases for victims who have been injured through no fault of their own. He has been selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers “Rising Star” and has become a member of the Dean’s Cabinet at Suffolk University Law School.
Why does he give? “I give to Suffolk because without those skills, without that foundation, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. It’s plain and simple. I can’t pinpoint one class or professor or job experience that made me feel this way, but there is something about the place that makes you want to work for the underdog.”
In considering who he wanted to honor with his scholarship fund, Breslin thought outside of the box. It didn’t take him long to think of his grandfather. While Hardiman and Suffolk may not seem to have had an overt connection, in a way they did, Breslin says. The idea of helping graduates rise, maybe do a little better than the generation behind them—that, he says, is what John Hardiman was all about.
“That’s what he did,” says Breslin. “And what he wanted for his kids and grandkids felt right in line with Suffolk’s mission.”
By Greg Gatlin
For personal injury attorney Matthew Breslin, this brick from a now-demolished housing project in Roxbury, where his beloved grandfather grew up, symbolizes that many things can be priceless—a point he often makes to jurors when arguing a case.
Matthew Breslin, JD ’12, keeps a red brick on the credenza behind his desk at his Pennsylvania law firm.
Sometimes when he’s arguing a case and wants to make a point, Breslin—a personal injury lawyer and partner at Rodden, Rodden & Breslin—brings the brick into the courtroom.
“Often a jury may have trouble understanding how they should put a value on someone’s injuries,” Breslin explains. Jurors might look at someone with an injured back and not understand how impactful that can be. That person might no longer be able to walk, get a good night’s sleep, or even get down and play with their kids.
That’s when Breslin will hold up the brick, which from most angles looks perfectly ordinary. He asks jurors how much they think it’s worth. Maybe a buck or two at Home Depot?
But this brick bears a plaque on one side revealing that it comes from the old Orchard Park housing projects in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which were demolished in 1998. The brick was later presented to Breslin’s grandfather, John P. Hardiman, who grew up in the Orchard Park projects, the son of Irish-Catholic immigrants.
Hardiman, who died in 2016, meant the world to his grandson. He looked out for him. He inspired him. He was the force that led Breslin to Suffolk Law and a legal career. And he taught him the importance of giving back.
Fighting for the Underdog
To support Suffolk scholarships, go to:
www.suffolk.edu/giving or call
617-305-1900.