Thomas W. Bridge is an American lawyer based in Boston, Massachusetts, whose practice has concentrated on tax matters. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1986 after studying at Harvard College and Boston College Law School, and he later became vice president and associate general counsel at Fidelity Investments.
Education
Bridge received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1979. Founded in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, and its college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offered undergraduates a broad liberal arts curriculum.
He then studied at Boston College Law School from 1983 to 1986 and received a Juris Doctor. The law school was founded in 1929 as the first graduate program of Boston College, a Jesuit university, and it received American Bar Association accreditation in 1932. It had occupied its permanent Newton campus since 1975, when Boston College acquired the former Newton College of the Sacred Heart, and it reflected the Jesuit, Catholic tradition of its parent university.
Career
Bridge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1986, the year he completed his law degree. From 1986 to 1987 he served as law clerk to Chief Justice Edward F. Hennessey of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the highest appellate court in the Commonwealth. He was also a partner of a law practice named S Eggeuno.
From 1987 to 1994 Bridge was an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP, a Boston law firm founded in 1865. The firm was among the long-established practices of the city when he joined it.
From 1994 to 1999 he worked as senior counsel for tax at Thermo Electron Corporation. The company, founded in 1956 and based in Waltham, Massachusetts, was an instrumentation and technology company that became a prominent Massachusetts business in the late twentieth century. His earlier career also included a role at Scribe Data Systems.
In 1999 Bridge joined Fidelity Investments as vice president and associate general counsel, a position he continues to hold. Fidelity, a Boston-based financial services firm founded in 1946, is one of the largest providers of mutual funds and retirement services in the United States. Across these positions his practice concentrated on federal, international, and Massachusetts taxation, charitable giving, and tax-exempt organizations, and he gained experience in mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy reorganizations, and tax controversy.
He also taught as an adjunct faculty member at Boston College Law School from 2011 to 2016, in the area of corporate finance.
Membership
Bridge took leadership roles in the Boston Bar Association, one of the oldest bar associations in the United States, founded in 1876 to serve the city's legal profession and the administration of justice. He chaired its Federal Tax Committee from 1991 to 1993 and its State Tax Committee from 1993 to 1994, linking his tax practice to the association's committee work.
