Justice Law Collaborative Receives 2025 'Empowering Women' Honors
All Female Led Plaintiffs’ Firm Honored With Second Empowering Women Award (2025)
BOSTON, Mass. (July 28, 2025) – For the second consecutive year, Justice Law Collaborative, LLC (JLC) was named to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s Empowering Women list, citing the firm’s commitment to elevating and supporting women in the field of law.
Awarded by the publishers of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, the elite Empowering Women list recognizes firms ranging from large general service firms to boutique practices that have demonstrated a commitment to hiring and promoting women, have provided mentoring and opportunities for professional advancement for women attorneys, and have established programs and policies to help women attorneys thrive professionally.
In January, the firm announced its merger with Yaeger Law, followed a few months later with a second merger with KBM Law. Both Yaeger Law and KBM Law are successful, women-owned legal practices whose caseloads closely align with JLCs. Prior collaboration and professional relationships with the firms supported the decision to unify the trio of practices beneath the Justice Law Collaborative umbrella to become the largest, all-female-partnership-led plaintiffs’ firm in the country.
Co-founded in 2021 by attorneys Paula Bliss and Kim Dougherty, Justice Law Collaborative was formed to fill a void in trauma-informed litigation and social justice, and the firm today leads a variety of mass tort and plaintiff litigation across IVF/fertility, sexual assault and abuse, the “troubled teen” industry (TTI), pharmaceutical, medical device, and human trafficking arenas. Within the first six months of 2025, the firm completed two mergers with women-founded law practices, Yaeger Law and KBM Law, adding two additional women partners to its existing all-female partnership. In just four years, JLC has grown to a team of 22 professionals (plus four seasonal interns), 80 percent of whom are women, including its all-female leadership team of five partners: Kim Dougherty, Paula Bliss, Karen Barth Menzies, Kelly Guagenty, and Laura Yaeger. With offices on both the east and west coasts, Justice Law Collaborative has become the largest, all-female-partnership-led plaintiffs’ firm in the country.
“A guiding principle since starting our practice was to ensure that women not only had a seat at the table, but that we place ourselves in a position to construct the tables at which women could be seated,” said JLC co-founder and partner Paula Bliss. “In a historically male-dominated industry, we recognized an opportunity to elevate brilliant women at various levels within the judiciary and believed that evolution needed to start with us.”
Whether in the office or the community, JLC leadership has proven a foundational commitment to women in the legal profession through its words and actions. The firm offers flexible schedules, ongoing training and professional development, and champions community engagement with various philanthropic and women empowerment avenues such as Guardians of the Street and She’s Local.
The firm today employs a mix of female legal professionals of diverse ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations, including single mothers, students, and family breadwinners, all of whom receive dedicated attention through mentorship, professional development, collaboration, and most importantly, empowerment. Members of the JLC team have been actively involved in legislative reform designed to advance swift and lasting changes across state and nationwide legislatures. In the last year, JLC has advocated for legislation to dismantle elements associated with the “troubled teen” industry (TTI), including the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, which was passed into federal law in December 2024, and the Preventing Abduction in Youth Transport Act of 2025, also signed into Maryland law in May. Additionally, firm members have consistently appeared at the Massachusetts State House to advocate for greater protections for survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault, which predominantly impact the female population.
“The work that we do each day is focused on further protecting, serving, supporting, and enhancing the lives of women,” shared JLC co-founder and partner Kim Dougherty. “We’re committed to social justice and meaningful judicial reform, causes that thread a strong sense of purpose through our entire team. Each of us plays a valuable role–whether providing advocacy for clients, representing them in court, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder with survivors who desperately want and deserve their voices to be heard. We are grateful and humbled to be recognized by our colleagues for what comes naturally to us.”
JLC partners regularly speak at legal conferences, lead educational webinars, and participate in mentorship programs aimed at cultivating the next generation of women leaders in law. Several members of the firm also guest lecturer at Massachusetts law schools. These efforts, combined with the firm’s client-centered, trauma-informed approach, have positioned JLC as not only a legal powerhouse but also a catalyst for long-overdue change in how the legal industry supports women. In an effort to encourage greater equity in the profession, JLC partner Laura Yaeger co-founded and chaired the American Association for Justice’s (AAJ) LGBT Caucus, and was recently named to AAJ’s executive leadership as its Parliamentarian. JLC’s newest partner, Karen Barth Menzies, founded Unsilences Survivors, a community committed to amplifying the voices of sexual assault survivors, advocates, and allies.
About Justice Law Collaborative
Justice Law Collaborative (JLC), with offices in California and Massachusetts, embodies the highest level of professional, trauma-informed legal expertise in social justice and advocacy. Owned and led entirely by women, the firm has represented athletes abused by Olympic coach Larry Nassar, teenagers tormented by hostile, uncertified schools parading as therapy-based programs for troubled teens, and has represented consumers and patients harmed by corporate greed and negligence, specifically the pharmaceutical, reproductive medicine, and tobacco industries. JLC attorneys have extensive experience in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, wrongful death, medical malpractice, reproductive rights, sexual assault and abuse, and personal injury cases. Additionally, the firm is dedicated to legislative reform, spearheading efforts to modify statutes of limitations and enact new laws to protect the innocent and to provide proper financial and judicial remedies to victims. Justice Law Collaborative was ranked a 2025 Best Law Firm by Best Lawyers®, and firm partners have been named to Massachusetts Super Lawyer® and Best Lawyers® lists for multiple, consecutive years. After a duo of mergers in January (Yaeger Law) and June (KBM Law) of 2025, Justice Law Collaborative became the largest, all-women-owned and led plaintiffs’ firm in the country, with attorneys admitted to practice in California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and Texas. More information about the firm and its far-reaching results can be found at: www.justicelawcollaborative.com.
July 28, 2025
