A graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. McLaughlin started practicing law with his father in 1960. In 1963, he became an adjunct professor at BU Law School, and the next year started the Smith McLaughlin Hart Bar Review with Jim Smith and Fred Hart from BC Law School. During the next 30 years he helped over 30,000 law students pass the Massachusetts Bar Exam.

In 1975 he became a founding partner in Gilman McLaughlin & Hanrahan. In practice he specialized in the fields of property taxation and condominiums. In the 1970’s, he helped the City of Boston resolve systemic property tax issues involving unequal assessments culminating in (Kenniston v. The Assessors of the City of Boston, 380 Mass 888). He has tried tax appeal cases dealing with the largest office buildings (Blakeley v. The Assessors of the City of Boston, 391 Mass. 473) and multimillion dollar power plants (Boston Edison v. Boston, 401 Mass. 1).

He was a pioneer in the field of condominium conversion in the early 1980’s, using it as a device to circumvent property restrictions. His most unusual conversion was a bath house on Chapoquoit Beach in Falmouth where unfinished 20 square feet condominium units now sell for $7000 per square foot. Recently he prevailed in a case regarding the removal of land from a condominium (Levy v. Reardon) securing for his clients exclusive use of all amenities and title to the entire parcel.