[Interesting cross section of the legal community here – ]
For the whole story: http://www.masslawye…
Yesterday, Gov. Deval L. Patrick filled the remaining 18 vacancies on his Judicial Nominating Commission.
The new JNC appointees are:
Ferdinand Alvaro Jr. of Fitzhugh, Parker & Alvaro in Boston
Robert L. Burke of Callan & Burke in Lowell
Cathleen Cavell of Thomas Mullen in Wakefield
R. Michael Cassidy, associate professor at Boston College Law School in Newton
Patricia McGovern, general counsel and senior vice president at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston
Brien T. O’Connor of Ropes & Gray in Boston
Colin George Kim Owyang, director and counsel at National Grid in Westborough
Lon F. Povich, senior vice president and general counsel of BJ’s Wholesale in Natick
Pauline Quirion, senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services in Boston
Katherine A. Robertson of Bulkey, Richardson and Gelinas in Springfield
John L. Roncone Jr. of Roncone Law Offices in Leominster
E. Macey Russell of Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston
Steven P. Sabra of Sabra & Aspden in Somerset
Evelynne L. Swagerty, assistant general counsel at Bank of America Corp. in Boston
Richard C. Van Nostrand of Mirick O’Connell in Worcester
Dorothy Varon, assistant vice president and counsel at Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company in Springfield
Audrey K. Wang, university attorney at Harvard University in Cambridge
Robert N. Weiner of Robert N. Weiner, Esq. in Salem
While the leadership had already been appointed, appointing these additional 18 members has to have required 100s of hours, and the fact that there was no leakage of names during the process ius impressive. I note that there are more than a dozen other judicial vacancies to fill, and the new judges will impact the lives of countless citizens for decades. Filling these positions with dispatch is important to justice because unfilled judicial positions stress sitting judges, and lead to major delays in justice.
The heads of the Judicial Nominating Commision are: Chair Lisa C. Goodheart of Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen in Boston; Vice Chair John M. Griffin, vice president and deputy general counsel at Tyco Healthcare Group; and Vice Chair Elizabeth W. Morse of Tashjian, Simsarian & Wickstrom in Worcester.
It is my understanding that the work needed to nominate a new Supreme Judicial Court Justice is already underway.
No one west of Springfield? Ouch. And of the two Springfield people, one is MassMutual so that hardly counts for W.Mass.
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Hey Gov, Berkshire, Hampshire and Franklin counties have lawyers too, ya know.
that the towns listed are the sites of the firms, not the home towns of the people on the committee.
Very true, stomv, lost sight of that in my initial reaction. Also, it is not as if the JNC has to be perfectly geographically balanced, I just like to see when some W.Mass. based folks make lists like this.
I take issue with the analysis of Daniel Shays that Patrick’s appointees to the Judicial Nominating Council (JNC) represents an “interesting cross-section” of lawyers for this advisory judicial appointments panel.
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By my count, 8 of the 20 or 40% of Patrick’s nominees to the JNC are corporate lawyers who have close ties to big business or large non-profit institutional interests such as mega-hospitals. For example, the Patrick-appointed Vice-Chairperson of the JNC, Mr. John M. Griffin, who serves as Deputy Counsel of the Tyco Healthcare Corp., a nearly $10 billion business that produces medical devices, supplies, and pharmaceuticals.
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As progressives seek to ensure a fair, effective, and comprehensive implementation of the mandatory state health coverage law, I remain skeptical about the ability and will of the corporate-dominated Patrick-appointed JNC to produce progressive judicial appointee recommendations. Governor Patrick should NOT be reluctant to use his constitutional authority to bypass the recommendations he receives from the JNC and appoint state trial and appellate judges who will uphold the public interest in ensuring the fair, impartial, and public interest-oriented adjudication of legal matters pertaining to health care, consumer rights, and the enviornment.
I would hope that the defense bar, the civil bar, the family law bar, etc. will be more evenly represented in the judges who are appointed by Patrick. The composition is reflective of the folks who accepted [not everyone who was asked, as other posters here confirm] and is skewed by those who have salaries and employers who will allow them to spend this much time as volunteers.
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Attorneys such as myself are self-employed, so when I take a day to testify at a hearing, or attend a task force meeting, [for example] that is a day of lost income.
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Part of why most of the attorneys who are appointed to Commissions and Task Forces are “in house counsel” or large firm employees is because – they get paid anyway.
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The free-standing solo attorney, who does public interest law, does it at a total sacrifice.
Yes, Patrick’s judicial appointments are apt to be more diverse on all counts (scope of practice, ideology, race, gender, and professional legal experience) than Romney’s. However, I would hope that progressives would hold Governor Patrick, who ran as a progressive on many critical criminal and civil law issues, to a higher standard of diversity than Governor Romney.
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The corporate-dominated composition of the JNC and Patrick’s legal experience in the corporate world should make one skeptical to hope that his selections will be anything but marginally more diverse and representational than Romney’s.
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Nevertheless, there is ample precedent for a Governor bypassing the JNC selection process and nominating a justice who possesses a professional background and experience different from the corporate types who dominate the JNC. For example, SJC Justice Roderick Ireland, the Court’s only African-American justice and an expert on juvenile law, was appointed by Governor Weld, despite not having received the corporate imprimatur of the JNC. Governor Patrick should consider mirroring the thoughtful, “break the mold” judicial appointment practices sometimes followed by Governor Weld and Cellucci in their appointments to the bench.
Take issue all you like eddie, but it is with AmberPaw not me. Her post has the “interesting cross section” line. Me, I was just complaining, it would seem wrongly from comments down thread, about the lack of western Mass. members.
I know someone who was nominated, but declined. The position meets once a week for several hours, and required more time per week in due diligence work. The meetings were primarily in Boston.
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The 4+ hours to drive to and from the meeting each week was a deal-breaker.
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In this case, the outreach was there, but I suspect the acceptance rate was lower for people outside of Boston.
Good inside info., didn’t know it met that regularly, kappy to know inquiries were made.
…I would think that they would only meet when a judgeship becomes open.
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Also, I would infer from your 4+ hours drive-time comment that the commission meets in Boston. It would seem to me that the commission could meet in a more centrally-located venue, such as Worcester or even Northampton to be fairer to the western part of the state.
My friend asked about the time commitment, and was told that it would be one several-hour meeting per week, usually in Boston, occasionally somewhere else, and the commitment would also time outside the meetings in due diligence work. I don’t know why they’d meet weekly, but this is what the contact said.
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And yes, as I stated, the meetings are usually in Boston, and getting to Boston from the Western part of the state is at least a 2-hour commitment, door-to-door, each way, even more if you’re in Pittsfield or Greenfield.
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I agree that a more central location would have been better for people in Western MA, but the reality is that most people in this state are in the Boston area, so that would have inconvenienced the 75+% of the committee that was not from Western MA.
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Large corporations and large law firms frequently count such service as “time worked”, my friend’s employer wasn’t in a position to do so, especially since it would have meant a 20% reduction in work time per week.
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That’s one of the big problems with volunteer-based government — it is only open to those who have circumstances that allow them to volunteer, or those who have such a burning desire to be involved that they rearrange their lives to do so. I personally don’t think that brings the best result.
And more to follow. It was expected when judges received their raise that the rate of retirement would accelerate – this has in fact happened.
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The current openings are:
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Appeals court – 2
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Supreior Court – 1
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District Court – 3 clerk Magistrates, one judge
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Juvenile court – 1
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Probate and Family Court – 3
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There is actually an application to fill out at the Judicial Nominating Commission Website!
As I know personally the appointee who works for MassMutual (that would be Dorothy Varon), I can only say that she is an excellent choice for the JNC. She’s been with MassMutual for less than a year, having gone there from one of the larger Springfield law firms. And law is a second career for her (I think health care was her prior). She is a resident of western MA (one of the smaller towns north of Northampton) and is a person of high integrity and wisdom. Although a New Yorker by birth, she is now “of the Valley”, and very able to represent the interests of Western MA in any position in which she serves. She chaired the western MA commmittee of the WBA until recently, and always advocated within that organization for more attention for this part of the state. Deval made a good move when he put Dorothy on this committee.
Yeah I made the boneheaded mistake of assuming that people lived where they worked. Should have taken a deep breath and thought that someone working in Springfield could easily be living in any of the 4 W.Mass. counties. Also, good to know that she is generally a good person and a talented attorney.