Serving Fire Officials Throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Providing Premier Legal Representation for Massachusetts Fire Officials
The Commonwealth Fire Officials Legal Defense Fund ensures that fire chiefs and non-unionized officers and command staff personnel have experienced legal support representing their interests on matters arising out of job-related decisions and actions.
Focused on the legal needs of fire officials across the Commonwealth.
About the Commonwealth Fire Officials Legal Defense Fund
The Commonwealth Fire Officials Legal Defense Fund was created to meet a rising and pressing need—to provide focused legal support for fire chiefs and non-unionized officers and command staff personnel throughout Massachusetts. Whether the official is in a large, medium or small agency, whether the official is in civil service or not, the CFO LDF exists both to provide preventative representation to avoid problems and to assist the official so that when complex incidents do lead to scrutiny, fire leaders are not left to navigate the legal system alone.
Our Mission
To ensure that the fire officials responsible for protecting communities across the Commonwealth have access to experienced legal counsel to aid them in their employment decisions and actions and to represent them when their professional conduct is questioned.
Our Vision
A fire service where leaders can focus on serving their communities, confident that a dedicated legal defense resource is in place when they need it most.
For Fire Officials
Support for chiefs, command staff and officers facing investigations, discipline or legal complaints.
Rooted Exclusively in Massachusetts
Armed with many decades of experience in representing public safety officials in Massachusetts, the CFO LDF was created to meet the needs of fire officials within the realities of the Commonwealth’s fire service.
A Simple and Direct Process to Protect Fire Officials
When an actual or potential event or issue leads to questions or complaints, the CFO LDF is ready to help the fire official navigate the situation.
Question, Incident or Allegation
A fire official has a question concerning a job-related matter or faces a complaint, investigation, or legal action related to official duties.
Simple CFO LDF Activation
Call, email or otherwise contact the attorneys of the CFO LDF directly, with no bureaucracy like a middleman or a claims adjuster involved. Once membership and coverage are confirmed, key details are reviewed and the work begins.
Legal Defense
Experienced legal counsel advises and represents the official throughout the process, from the first call to the final event in the sequence, whether that is an appointing authority hearing, an arbitration hearing or a judicial process. Beyond the yearly membership dues, the official is not responsible for any other payment or expense associated with the defense of the official.
Who We Serve
Fire Chiefs, Officials & Command Staff
The CFO LDF is focused on the leaders who carry legal and operational responsibility on every call and in every decision they make. Individuals who potentially are eligible for membership include fire chiefs, assistant chiefs and deputy chiefs, district and battalion chiefs, and captains, lieutenants and other command staff personnel.
- Fire chiefs and deputy chiefs
- District and battalion chiefs
- Captains, lieutenants, and incident commanders
Why This Fund Matters in the Commonwealth
A Chief Under Scrutiny
The origins of the CFO LDF can be traced in part back to a fire official who had become the target of municipal officials. The official faced a staged employment attack, initially through a lengthy suspension that soon was followed by a second long-term suspension on a separate matter. In short order, there was a third piece of discipline through which, using the first disciplinary sanctions as grounds for progressive discipline, the official was fired at the local level.
After the fire official retained one of the attorneys now involved in the creation of the CFO LDF, the first and second disciplinary actions were appealed and overturned, with full backpay awarded, and the municipality effectively abandoned its attempts to sustain the discipline. The Commonwealth Fire Officials Legal Defense Fund exists so that when situations like this arise, fire leaders can focus on their departments while experienced legal counsel helps to protect their rights, careers, and reputations.