She stands and delivers

STANDARD SETTER: Whether in the courtroom, as an advocate for the legal profession or mentor to women in business, Melissa E. Darigan expects a lot and delivers on those expectations. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
STANDARD SETTER: Whether in the courtroom, as an advocate for the legal profession or mentor to women in business, Melissa E. Darigan expects a lot and delivers on those expectations. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Melissa E. Darigan has spent her entire life around Providence.

Born and raised in Elmwood, she says it was the best possible place for her to grow up.

“Our neighborhood was diverse and vibrant – an urban environment with white, black, Latino and Asian residents, mostly low- and middle-class households,” Darigan said, “where kids played in the street after school until the street lights came on.”

“We saw firsthand crime, gritty city streets and the struggles of families with modest means to get by. Also, joyous neighborhood block parties with families sharing favorite foods and stories, neighbors watching out for each other, raucous kickball tournaments and hours shooting hoops in our backyard.”

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Darigan lived in that same neighborhood until age 24, when she married her high school sweetheart, James Castillo, and began a career as a litigation associate at Providence law firm Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP.

Over the next seven years, Darigan worked very hard at the growing law firm, which had opened its doors just four years earlier.

“It was a tough, learn-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and sink-or-swim environment,” she said. “But it was tempered by partners and senior associates who were generous with their guidance.”

With a happy marriage and a growing legal career, life for Darigan was really good.

Until it wasn’t.

One morning in February 1999, Darigan was at Providence County Superior Court, about to begin a hearing, when her boss tapped her on the shoulder.

“He took me into a small room on the fifth floor of the courthouse, where a couple of people in suits were sitting,” she recalled. “I was sure I was being fired, or at the very least, was being taken off the case I was there to present that morning. That was not the news, however.”

Darigan was told that a day earlier her husband, James, working in Israel as a project manager for GTECH at the time, had drowned while surfing.

“I was wrecked,” Darigan said. “During this time, the firm was incredibly gracious to me. … The shock and incredible loss of the only man I had ever been with and who I planned to grow old with, and forging a new and productive life, was the hardest challenge I have ever had and honestly believe I will ever again face.”

“It is also the accomplishment about which I am most proud,” she said.

Through the tragedy and the pain, Darigan says she turned to her work for solace. She was elevated to partner in January 2000, when she says she started what was basically a new life.

Darigan has been a partner at PSH ever since and always as a member of the litigation department. She has primarily represented banks, insurance companies and business entities in all types of complex commercial litigation, as well as corporate fiduciaries and individuals in contested trust and estate matters.

Laura Freedman Pedrick, development director for the Aquidneck Land Trust, worked with Darigan for nine years as marketing director at PSH. She says she has watched in awe as Darigan delivers on a commitment to excellence in serving clients and developing her skills as a mentor.

“Melissa demands a lot from herself,” Pedrick said. “She [has] a leadership style that makes people want to be around her.”

In 2006, Darigan became chair of the firm’s large litigation practice group – with 31 of the firm’s 57 lawyers operating across all four of its offices. She also serves as the president of the Rhode Island Bar Association and its nearly 6,500 members, is active in the firm’s mentoring program, and co-founded Partridge Snow & Hahn’s Women AdVocates for Enterprise, to help women in business advance.

Pamela Alarie, vice president of human resources at The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., partnered with Darigan on several legal matters over nearly 15 years.

“She is an inspiration and she wins fans wherever she goes,” Alarie said. “I describe Melissa as high achieving, enthusiastic and compassionate, and I feel blessed to call her both my colleague and my friend.”

Darigan, who has found personal happiness in a second marriage, has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

“My goal is to play an influential and impactful role in all that I do – not just to show up, but to engage, make something happen, advance the ball,” she said. •

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