JOSEPH M. HASSETT

JOSEPH M. Hassett is pro bono senior counsel at Hogan Lovells, and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. For nearly five decades he has tried jury and non-jury cases involving a wide variety of public and private issues, and has argued in appellate courts all over the country including the United States Supreme Court.

Hassett has a deep understanding of corporate and securities matters. He has successfully represented targets and investment bankers in hostile takeover attempts, boards of directors in suits challenging their business judgment, and investment advisory and stock brokerage firms in suits by customers and governmental authorities.

Hassett has advised the outside directors of a major airline in connection with its bankruptcy, and assisted boards in developing procedures for improving corporate governance and avoiding litigation. He has also represented companies and individuals in connection with investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and federal grand juries.

Hassett earned a BA, summa cum laude, from Canisius College, an LL.B., cum laude, from Harvard University, and an MA and Ph.D. from University College Dublin.

An Irish American whose great grandparents emigrated from counties Clare and Cork, Hassett serves as counsel to the Embassy of Ireland in Washington, D.C. He has lectured on Yeats and other Irish writers at the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, the James Joyce Summer School in Dublin, the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco, Oxford University and the National Library of Ireland.

Hassett’s book W.B. Yeats and the Muses was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. His book about the obscenity trials of James Joyce’s Ulysses, titled The Ulysses Trials: Beauty and Truth Meet the Law, was published by Lilliput Press in 2016. His latest work, Yeats Now: Echoing Into Life, was published by Lilliput in 2020.

On October 11, 2022, the Irish government announced that Hassett will be awarded a 2022 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, in recognition for his contributions to Irish arts and culture. The award will be bestowed by Irish President Michael D. Higgins at a ceremony later in 2022.

Hassett and his wife Carol Melton live in Washington, D.C. They have two children, Matthew and Meredith.