Report: Boston licensing lawyer fired over forged liquor license

Boston Magazine reports the downtown law firm Prince Lobel Tye has fired Lesley Delaney Hawkins for allegedly "delivering a bogus liquor license to a client."

Delaney Hawkins, who was the lawyer for both the Boston Licensing Board and the city Cannabis Board before she left in 2021 for a job handling licensing and zoning permitting for the firm's clients, gave Craft Food Halls, which wants to open a food hall with self-service taps for alcoholic beverages at 1234 Soldiers Field Rd. in Brighton a liquor license with a fake registration number on it.

The Boston Licensing Board actually approved the license at a meeting on Feb. 1, but license holders have to wait for what is normally a pro forma approval process by the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission before they can start buying alcohol from state-licensed distributors and she is alleged to have given them a license with a fake registration number before the ABCC acted.

She was one of a small number of lawyers in Boston who specialize on licensing and zoning issues.

Delaney Hawkins makes the case for her client at Jan. 31 hearing; board approved a license transfer the next day: