voting rights
Smith Duggan has extensive experience with voting rights advice and litigation. Our voting rights practice is headed by H. Reed Witherby. Mr. Witherby has been involved in voting rights matters since 1987, when, as an Assistant Attorney General, he defended Massachusetts's legislative redistricting plans against a federal court challenge, an assignment that included advising the House in successful negotiations with a coalition of minority group advocates.
After joining Smith Duggan in 1991, Mr. Witherby successfully defended, against a new federal court challenge, Massachusetts's use of its 1987 Senate and 1988 House plans in the 1992 elections. In 1993, Mr. Witherby advised the Massachusetts House in drawing new districts for the 1994 elections, and he subsequently represented the Massachusetts Legislature in responding to an inquiry by the U.S. Department of Justice. Several other Smith Duggan lawyers worked with Mr. Witherby on various aspects of these assignments.
Mr. Witherby served as Special Counsel to the Massachusetts Senate Redistricting Committee for redistricting the Massachusetts Congressional and Senatorial districts following the 2000 Census.
Mr. Witherby taught a seminar on voting rights law in 2001 as an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University School of Law. Also in 2001, he presented a talk on minority vote dilution analysis at the National Conference of State Legislatures Redistricting Seminar in Dallas, Texas. He is the co-author (with Paul A. Lazour) of "Redistricting in Massachusetts," chapter 10 in Massachusetts Election Administration, Campaign Finance and Lobbying Law (P. Sturges, ed., MCLE 2000).