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星期三, 7月 27, 2016

Governor Baker Nominates Four to Massachusetts Appeals Court

Governor Baker Nominates Four to Massachusetts Appeals Court
Candidates bring diverse backgrounds to the Commonwealth’s intermediate appellate court

BOSTON – Governor Charlie Baker has nominated the Honorable Superior Court Justices Kenneth V. Desmond and James R. Lemire, State Solicitor Peter Sacks, and Assistant Attorney General Sookyoung Shin to the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

“I am proud to nominate such an accomplished and diverse group to the Appeals Court," said Governor Charlie Baker. "The combined trial, appellate and administrative law experience of this group will be a tremendous addition to the court and our judicial system. I thank the Judicial Nominating Commission for their hard work in presenting these outstanding candidates and look forward to the Governor’s Council’s thoughtful consideration of their nominations."

“I am confident that if confirmed, these nominees will maintain the high level of legal talent at the Appeals Court,” said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “With two Superior Court Justices and two seasoned appellate lawyers, this slate brings a wide range of experience that will allow the Court to issue thoughtful, well-reasoned decisions in an efficient manner across the broad range of legal issues that are heard by the Appeals Court.”

The Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court to which most appeals from the Massachusetts Trial Courts and a number of administrative bodies are made.  The Court has 1 Chief and 24 Associate Justices. Last year, Governor Baker nominated the Honorable Scott L. Kafker to serve as Chief Justice of the Appeals Court.  Governor Baker nominated three additional associate justices to the Appeals Court in October of 2015.

“The Governor has nominated a first-rate slate of talented trial judges and appellate advocates for the Appeals Court,” said Appeals Court Chief Justice Scott Kafker. “They would bring to our court a wealth of civil and criminal, and trial and appellate experience, and enhance our diversity.”

Judicial nominations are subject to the advice and consent of the Governor’s Council. Applicants for judicial openings are reviewed by the Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) and recommended to the governor. Governor Baker established the JNC in February, 2015 pursuant to Executive Order 558, a non-partisan, non-political Commission composed of volunteers from a cross-section of the Commonwealth's diverse population to screen judicial applications. Twenty-one members were later appointed to the JNC in April, 2015.

About the Honorable Kenneth V. Desmond:

A graduate of Tufts University and Boston College Law School, Judge Kenneth V. Desmond Jr. began his career as an Assistant District Attorney for Suffolk County, where he served from 1990-1997. From 1997-2005, he served as Deputy Chief Legal Counsel for the Sheriff of Middlesex County. In 2005 he was appointed Associate Justice to the Boston Municipal Court, and was presiding justice of the Dorchester Drug Court from 2007-2012. In 2012, Desmond joined the Massachusetts Superior Court. He served as a member of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Committee to Study the Code of Judicial Conduct, and is presently a member of Trial Courts Judicial Performance Committee, Chair of the Trial Courts Departmental Race and Implicit Bias Advisory Committee and  Vice-Chair of the Supreme Judicial Court Advisory Board on Probation. Desmond previously served on the Board of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association and is a Vice- President of the Massachusetts Black Judges Conference.

About the Honorable James R. Lemire:

After graduating from Assumption College in Worcester with a BA in Political Science in 1975 and from New England Law in 1978, Judge James Lemire’s 40-year law career began in the Worcester County District Attorney’s office, where he remained until 1989, serving as Chief of the Sexual Assault Unit, then Chief of the Drug Unit. For the next twelve years he worked Criminal and Civil Litigation while working at a private law practice in Holden, MA. Mr. Lemire returned to the District Attorney’s office in 2001 and became Chief of the Financial Crime Unit until 2006 when he joined the Superior Court. Since 2007, he has participated in the Superior Court’s judicial mentoring and education programs for new judges. He also served as the Regional Administrative Judge for the Worcester Region from 2011 to 2014. From 1981-2014, he served as an adjunct professor of continuing education at Assumption College for classes and lectures related to Business Law, Criminal Law, Litigation, Real Estate law, Paralegal Programs, and Criminal Justice Programs.

About Peter Sacks:

State Solicitor Peter Sacks graduated with a BA Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and later magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he served on the Harvard Law Review. Following his graduation, Sacks clerked first for Judge Edward Gignoux, U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, and then for Judge Frank Coffin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Since 1988, Sacks has worked as an Assistant Attorney General, where he served as the Elections Counsel, as the Opinions Coordinator, and as the Deputy Chief of the Government Bureau. In 2013, Attorney Sacks was appointed to be the first State Solicitor in Massachusetts, serving as the principal advisor to the Attorney General on appellate strategy for cases affecting the Commonwealth. He has served as an active member of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure for the past 18 years.

About Sookyoung Shin:

A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, Assistant Attorney General Sookyoung Shin began her law career in 1999, serving as a patent litigator for Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner in Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter, she began working as a staff law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. From 2002 to 2003, Shin served as law clerk for the Honorable Joel M. Flaum of the 7th Circuit Court, before returning to Washington D.C. to work as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis L.L.P., specializing in appeals and dispositive motions. In 2005, she began working for the Office of the Attorney General in Boston, where she is currently an Assistant Attorney General in the Administrative Law Division. Ms. Shin has also lectured at Boston University School of Law, and in 2011 was a Supreme Court Fellow for the National Association of Attorneys General.

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