Issue Watch #07 – Year-End Judicial Comings and Goings, SCOTUS Declines BPS Case, and more
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Hi again, everyone! I’m back for one last Issue Watch newsletter of 2025, with a heavy emphasis on the third branch of government this time…
News from the Courts
Thanks in part to a special edition of this monthly Issue Watch newsletter in November (but still timely!), as well as a steady pace of announcements from the Governor’s Office, we have fallen way behind in updating you on the latest in judicial nominations and appointments. So let’s set about correcting that…
Judge Amy Blake has been confirmed as the 8th—and first female—Chief Justice of the Appeals Court, succeeding Mark Green, who stepped down in September. Justice Blake has served on the Appeals Court since 2014, after six years on the Probate & Family Court bench. A graduate of, and lecturer at, New England Law | Boston, she is a former co-chair of the Board of Editors of the Boston Bar Journal.
In another upward move, Judge Gloria Tan will join her there after being appointed to the Appeals Court following 11 years on the Juvenile Court bench—the past five as first justice. She previously worked with Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute, including a couple of years as deputy director, and was a public defender with CPCS, representing both adults and juveniles.
No fewer than 14 new judges have also been confirmed since we last spoke on this…
ON THE APPEALS COURT
Chauncey Wood—a partner at Wood & Nathanson, LLP, since its founding in 2008—specialized in Title IX and criminal-defense cases, including trials and appeals of serious state and federal felony charges—primarily murder. He started his career as an assistant public defender in Maryland.
ON THE SUPERIOR COURT
Sarah G. Kim, a former member of the BBA Council, was a Deputy Treasurer and the General Counsel for the State Treasurer, advising senior staff on strategic policy, procurement, employment and litigation issues, and managing the team that provides support on various legal issues and handles state retirement benefit matters before administrative law agencies. She previously served as the interim Chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, and as an Assistant Attorney General in the AGO’s Fraud and Financial Crimes Division. She also practiced in the Litigation department of Bingham McCutchen. Judge Kim is a former President of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts and Board Chair of the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence.
Ira Gant was CPCS’s Forensic Services Director, overseeing forensic litigation support and training for attorneys handling criminal, juvenile, care and protection, and mental-health commitment cases.
Adam Hornstine served as a Deputy Legal Counsel in the Governor’s Office, responsible for supervising the legal departments of secretariats, conducting legal reviews of executive orders, legislation, regulation and emergency declarations, and advising the Governor on petitions for pardons and commutations.
ON THE DISTRICT COURT
Stuart Hurowitz, Supervising Attorney in CPCS’s Worcester County Office for over a decade, was a public defender for 31 years, as well as serving as an adjunct and visiting professor at Boston College Law School and the Boston University School of Law, from which he graduated.
Mary “Polly” Phillips, founded her own firm in 2005, where she focused on criminal defense, representing clients in the District and Superior Courts. Prior to that, she was a prosecutor for eight years, both with the Middlesex DA and the Special Investigations and Narcotics Division of the Attorney General’s Criminal Bureau.
Cara Krysil Tirella was most recently Division Counsel for the New England Field Division of the DEA at the Department of Justice, where she was the principal legal advisor to Division personnel on all aspects of DEA operations, covering criminal, civil and administrative law. She previously served as an ADA in Middlesex County and was appointed to serve as a Special Assistant United States Attorney from 2007 to 2011, handling cases in federal court, before joining the AGO, where she served as the Chief of the Enterprise and Major Crimes Division, overseeing complex criminal cases.
Jared Parisella has been a State Representative from the 6th Essex District (Beverly and part of Wenham) for 14 years. He also served as an Attorney at Law at Cherry Tree Title and Law, where he focused on residential and commercial real estate conveyancing, zoning and general estate planning. He recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 29 years in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, where he was a judge advocate. In 2011, Rep. Parisella was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his service in the Iraq War.
ON THE PROBATE & FAMILY COURT
Colleen Carroll was that Court’s Assistant Judicial Case Manager in Plymouth, where she managed the Pathways Program, conducting virtual case management conferences on complaints for modification of child support, custody, parenting time and alimony, and drafting stipulations, temporary orders and judgments. Previously, Judge Carroll led a solo practice focused on domestic relations and criminal defense for over 20 years. She has a B.A. from Assumption College and a J.D. from Suffolk Law School.
Caryn Mitchell-Munevar was the Senior Supervising Attorney at the Northeast Legal Aid in Lowell, litigating and executing all aspects of case development pertaining to divorce, custody, visitation, separate support, child support, and Hague international custody disputes. Before that, she served for more than 20 years as the Clinical Law Professor & Attorney at Law at New England Law | Boston. Judge Mitchell-Munevar has also been active in a wide variety of pro bono projects and serves on the Family Law Curriculum Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). For two years, she co-chaired the BBA’s Family Law Section.
ON THE LAND COURT
Lauren Reznick was the Court’s Legal Counsel and Assistant Deputy Court Administrator since 2019, advising on a range of legal matters involving real estate, land use law, court operations, procedures, rules and policies. She also led the Court’s Tax Lien Foreclosure Legal Assistance Referral Program in partnership with the Lawyers Clearinghouse and sat on the SJC’s Committee to Study SJC Rule 3:03. Prior to joining the Land Court, Judge Reznick worked as a Litigation Associate at Ropes & Gray LLP, and Troutman Pepper, and as a Special Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex DA’s Office.
ON THE BOSTON MUNICIPAL COURT
Nicholas Brandt was a Deputy Legal Counsel in the Administrative Office of the District Court, advising the Chief Justice, judges, and Clerk-Magistrates on legal and policy matters, and developing educational programming. He served as a Deputy Legal Counsel to Governor Charlie Baker, advising on public-safety and education issues, including executive clemency, police reform, and pandemic-related impacts on prisons and public schools. He was also an ADA in Suffolk County.
Connor Barusch was as CPCS’s Director of Criminal Defense Training. Prior to this, they were the Trial Attorney at CPCS, representing clients throughout Boston and Roxbury. Judge Barusch is a Founding Advocate for the Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates and a member of the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association, with a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from BU Law School.
Dana Pierce was the Director of Externships at Harvard Law School, where she led the placement process for all clinical externship students while also providing general clinical program advising and ensuring that all externship placements comply with ABA standards, after having been an ADA in both Suffolk and Plymouth Counties. Judge Pierce has also served as Vice President and Counsel to State Street Bank and Trust Company, where she managed the resolution of legal, operational, and policy related inquiries for several international entities.
Moving on to the federal courts…
Brian Murphy–who was most recently the managing partner of Murphy & Rudolf LLP in Worcester, a law firm he cofounded in 2011—was confirmed by the US Senate to the District Court bench.
Meanwhile, in the closing weeks of his term, President Biden’s nomination of Julia Lipez for the First Circuit Court of Appeals appears unlikely to be taken up by the Senate. Judge Lipez, currently on the Maine Superior Court bench, would have followed in the footsteps of her own father, Judge Kermit Lipez, who is now on senior status in that court.
One other seat on the US District Court, coming open when Chief Judge Dennis Saylor takes senior status himself in the summer, will be filled by the incoming President.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice John Casey of the Probate & Family Court informed the Trial Court that he plans to step down in July after what will have been seven years in that post.
New Nominations
District Court
Hillary McCamic has served as a Staff Attorney since 2012 with CPCS, representing indigent criminal defendants in the Lawrence Public Defender office. She is responsible for handling serious criminal matters in the District and Superior Courts. Prior to this, Attorney McCamic owned a solo private practice focused exclusively on criminal defense, and she also served as an Essex County Bar Advocate representing indigent clients. For the last several years, she has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Lawrence Bar Association.
Probate & Family Court
Jennifer Bingham is a domestic-relations attorney who has represented clients in all aspects of divorce, including complex property division, business valuation, alimony, child support, child custody and antenuptial agreements. She also founded and led a small firm and solo practice. Since 2022, she has focused on delivering alternative dispute resolution services in family law at Bingham Dispute Resolution. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer in the Accounting and Law Departments of Babson College.
BBA Leadership Meets With More Chief Justices
Our annual tour of the various chief justices’ chambers continues: President Matt McTygue, President-Elect Suma Nair, and Vice President Mark Fleming sat down with the Trial Court’s Chief Justice Heidi Brieger and Administrator Tom Ambrosino. Chief Brieger is focused in particular of late on improving the efficiency of the Probate & Family and Juvenile Courts, and she expressed concerns about security in all departments of the Trial Court. Administrator Ambrosino gave an update on infrastructure improvements made possible by enactment of an IT bond bill for the courts. We pledged our continued support in advocating for adequate state funding to allow the Trial Court to maintain its high standards and keep improving.
SJC Chief Justice Offers State of the Judiciary Speech
Chief Justice Kimberly Budd of the SJC gave her annual State of the Judiciary address this month, pledging to continue to address the disturbing decline in public trust in the judiciary—in large part by taking steps to make the courts more accessible and more welcoming. She also cited the ethics codes that apply to judges and other court officials and employees, by way of demonstrating their accountability.
From the Supreme Court
This week, the US Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal from the dismissal of a case that challenged the constitutionality of a former interim admissions policy for Boston’s elite public “exam” high schools. The US District Court and the First Circuit had both rejected the argument that the revised policy—which, early in the COVID pandemic, moved away from using standardized tests and a city-wide policy toward one focused mainly on students with the highest grades in each ZIP code—was an improper attempt to use race as an admissions factor. The BBA joined amicus briefs (drafted by Cooley LLP for the Anti-Defamation League) to each of those lower courts, pointing out that the interim policy “foster[ed] and maintain[ed] a diverse student body so that students have access to the myriad, well-established educational benefits of diversity,” and that it ultimately helps Boston compete in a global marketplace where “having more diverse, well-credentialed graduates is an essential competitive advantage.” The Boston Public Schools have since implemented a new admissions policy, which has not been challenged.
Commission on Judicial Conduct
Judge Shelley Joseph faces a complaint from the Commission on Judicial Conduct stemming from a courtroom incident for which she once faced federal criminal charges. The BBA spoke out twice to decry that case as misguided and an “unprecedented overreach into state authority [that] poses a serious threat to the judicial independence that we all depend upon to protect our rights under the law.” The criminal charges were dropped as part of a deal to allow the matter to be addressed where it always belonged: at the Commission, which has the authority to impose discipline if it finds misconduct by judges or other employees. The BBA’s 2019 report on judicial independence makes clear that accountability mechanisms are in place to resolve such situations.
Update
Finally, before moving on from the courts, catching you up on three SJC cases that we highlighted in the September edition of Issue Watch:
Clerk-magistrate hearings in high-profile brothel case must be public (Trustees of Boston University v. Clerk-Magistrate of the Cambridge District Court:).
New rule on engagement rings if the wedding’s called off: They must go back to the giver regardless of who’s to blame (Johnson v. Settino).
Law-enforcement use of a phone app to record undercover interactions violates the state’s wiretap law, and neither audio nor video can be used as evidence (Commonwealth v. Du).
In the News
DLS Section co-chair Virginia Benzan quoted in MLW article on trends in DEI: Employment bar doesn’t see rush to catch anti-DEI wave
Globe speculates on the next US Attorney: Trump’s pick for top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts will likely crack down on illegal immigration
Legislative Update
A quick news item from the State House, of particular interest to those who represent non-profits: Continuing its practice of focusing their work, since the nominal end of formal sessions on July 31, on major bills, which then get smaller provisions tacked onto them, the Legislature enacted a comprehensive economic-development law that, along the way, adjusts reporting requirements for non-profits. Specifically, they increased the revenue threshold for the requirement that non-profits file an annual audited financial statement, from above $200,000 to $500,000, as well as for the option of instead filing a CPA review report, from below $500,000 to $1 million.
In similar fashion, they had also, in recent months, clarified the treatment of a decedent’s out-of-state real and tangible property, to exclude it from calculation of MA estate tax, and raised the statutory exemption from liability for a declared homestead from $500,000 to $1 million.
Walk to the Hill
A reminder that registration is open for Walk to the Hill on January 23rd at 11am in the State House — and you can now register for the BBA’s pre-Walk breakfast as well (9-11am). Lynne Parker, MLAC’s Executive Director, and Louis Tompros, Chair of the Equal Justice Coalition, spoke to the BBA Council this week about their request for a $3 million increase in state funding for civil legal aid in the upcoming budget, and they emphasized the continued importance of the Walk in making that case to legislators.
Before we close, I’d like to share a recent event I participated in: Through the auspices of WorldBoston, I had the honor this week of meeting with a delegation of lawyers and judges from Pakistan, who are visiting the US as part of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. We spoke about public policy, the BBA, and the role of bar associations generally, and they left me with a beautiful traditional shawl (seen here).
That’s all for 2024! Back next month for an early read on the state budget, the new (194th!) Legislature, and—oh my—what may await us from Washington in the coming year. Meanwhile, happy holidays to all!
