A longtime Boston licensing attorney who once worked inside City Hall has admitted to forging liquor licenses for three high-profile spots around town, a case that has jolted the small world of licensing lawyers and pushed the city to tighten how it issues permits. The lawyer, Lesley Delaney Hawkins, previously served as the Licensing Board's general counsel before moving to a downtown firm.
Plea, sentence and court conditions
On March 6, Hawkins pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery and three counts of uttering and was sentenced to three years of probation, according to The Boston Globe. Judge Catherine Hyo-Kyung Ham also ordered Hawkins to participate in an alcohol-monitoring program and undergo an evaluation for substance use disorder as part of her probation. Hawkins' attorney told the paper she is "pleased to have a fair and just resolution."
How the alleged fraud hit local businesses
Prosecutors say the scheme centered on tampering with transfer paperwork for liquor licenses moving from previous owners to new operators. The fallout touched several well-known venues: the Boston Park Plaza, Seaport cocktail lounge ZaZiBar, and Craft Food Halls in Allston. Craft Food Halls had to shut down for several months in 2024 while state and city officials sorted through the misfiled documents, as reported by Boston Magazine. The allegations led to Hawkins' firing from her firm and triggered a city review of other licenses she handled.
Timeline and charges
The Suffolk County district attorney initially brought 12 charges tied to forged paperwork in April 2024, though prosecutors later dropped about half of them as duplicative, according to Universal Hub. Hawkins was indicted later in 2025 and arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court as the investigation unfolded. Officials say the disputes involved transfers of existing licenses rather than licenses created out of whole cloth, which snarled vendor checks and delayed openings for the affected businesses.
Legal fallout and city response
The case pushed the Licensing Board to overhaul how it issues permits. The city now prints licenses on brightly colored paper that changes each year, hand-embosses them with a raised seal, and no longer lets licensees accept permits by email, The Boston Globe reports. Hawkins' lawyer also told the paper that she has pursued sobriety and launched a nonprofit called Sober & Curious to help people build alcohol-free connections. Restaurateurs and city officials say the new safeguards are meant to restore confidence in a licensing system where permits can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
