Timothy William Diggins is an American lawyer based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has maintained a longstanding interest in the classical languages and civilizations of Greece and Rome, beginning with his undergraduate studies and continuing through later academic work in classical studies. He is married to Deborah J. Coleman and they have two grown children.
Diggins studied Classics at the College of the Holy Cross, where he earned an A.B. summa cum laude in 1980 and received the Conniff Award for the highest mark in the study of Latin classics. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He later earned a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1983, where he received the Joseph Henry Beale Prize for legal research and writing. During his legal education, he received a grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst to study in Bonn and Berlin, West Germany. Later, after retiring from legal practice, he enrolled as a master's student in Classical Studies at Boston University, with particular interests in Ancient Greek prose and poetry.
Diggins was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1983. From 1983 to 1984 he served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Andrew A. Caffrey of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He subsequently joined Ropes & Gray, where he became a partner in 1992 and worked in the firm's corporate department and asset management practice. His practice focused on financial services, mutual funds, securities, derivatives, public offerings, investment advisory arrangements, international investments, arbitrage strategies, foreign-currency transactions, tax strategies, and the design and implementation of domestic and foreign securities investment and trading programs. His clients included sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, institutional investors, and endowments. He served as co-chair of the firm's Sovereign and Governmental Investors Practice Group and Derivatives and Financial Products Practice Group. In 1991 he was seconded from Ropes & Gray to Lovell White Durrant in London, where he worked with European collective investment schemes, Eurobond issuers, banks, and investment advisers. He retired from Ropes & Gray in 2023. Diggins has also served as a guest lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management on legal aspects of investment advisory businesses, private and public funds, and derivatives.
Received the Conniff Award for the highest mark in the study of Latin classics at the College of the Holy Cross.
Received the Joseph Henry Beale Prize for legal research and writing at the University of Chicago Law School.
Served as co-chair of Ropes & Gray's Sovereign and Governmental Investors Practice Group and Derivatives and Financial Products Practice Group.
Served as President of the Boston Athenaeum.
Diggins has been a member of the Boston Athenaeum since 1996 and a Proprietor since 2013. He has served on the Athenaeum's Board of Trustees since 2017 and has participated in its Advancement, Library & Member Services, and Nominating & Governance committees. He is associated with the Athenaeum's Hannah Adams Society and Armstrong Society. He has also participated in leadership and trustee activities for Brigham and Women's Hospital, A Far Cry orchestra, and the Boston Ballet.
Elected at the College of the Holy Cross.
Phi Beta Kappa , United States
1980 - present
Member since 1996 and Proprietor since 2013; served on the Board of Trustees from 2017.
Boston Athenaeum , United States
1996 - present
Member of the Boston Athenaeum society.
Hannah Adams Society , United States
Member of the Boston Athenaeum society.
Armstrong Society , United States
Diggins has a sustained interest in classical studies, particularly Latin, Ancient Greek, and the literature and philosophy of the ancient Mediterranean world. He has collected a substantial personal library of works in Latin and Greek and has studied French and German in addition to Latin and Ancient Greek.
Diggins is married to Deborah J. Coleman, and they have two grown children. His professional and civic work has connected him with Ropes & Gray, the Boston Athenaeum, Brigham and Women's Hospital, A Far Cry orchestra, and the Boston Ballet.
