Interview with Chief Justice of the Juvenile Court Dana M. Gershengorn 

Interviewed by Cristina F. Freitas and Debbie F. Freitas

Boston Bar Association members Cristina F. Freitas and Debbie F. Freitas recently interviewed Chief Justice of the Juvenile Court Dana M. Gershengorn, who began her five-year term of office in June 2024 after having served as an Associate Justice of the Plymouth County Juvenile Court since 2009. This interview, which has been edited and condensed, explores Chief Justice Gershengorn’s vision, priorities, and goals for her tenure.

Debbie Freitas: We really appreciate the opportunity to introduce you to the members of the Boston Bar Association and find out more about your goals moving forward.

Cristina Freitas: As Chief Justice, what is your vision for the Juvenile Court?

Judge Gershengorn: My vision for the Juvenile Court is to have a court that effectively and efficiently resolves the legal issues in front of us, and that we do that in a way that shows fidelity to the law. Within the confines of those parameters, the Juvenile Court should have an eye towards what’s in the best interest of the child, to the extent that we can for each case.

Cristina Freitas: And now that you are six months into your term, what have you identified as the priorities for your administration?

Judge Gershengorn: Two tracks have crystallized for me in the past six months. First is the importance of improving time to permanence, in the care and protection world and in the delinquency world. How can we improve efficiency in resolving our cases so that kids are achieving permanency faster? The second track is figuring out a way to make our data accurate and meaningful. I’m a data person. I like data. We are living in a time where we are facing unprecedented requests for data and information. So, it’s incredibly important to me that our data be not just accurate, but also meaningful. And what I’ve come to see in the past six months is that we rely on MassCourts for our data, largely as a docketing tool. So, a huge piece of my path going forward is to work with the Department of Research and Planning, the Administrative Office, the judges and the clerks. How do we make this data more meaningful? Not just for us, but for the public, so that the public has a good sense of what we’re doing.

For example, back when MassCourts was first implemented, clerks were trained to docket only the date of the last day of a hearing. When the public requests data on when the temporary custody hearing started and how long it lasted, we’re only getting data on the last day of the temporary custody hearing. So, we need to rethink what our coding options are, and how to integrate MassCourts into becoming a research tool.

Debbie Freitas: What are the most significant challenges currently facing the Juvenile Court?

Judge Gershengorn: On both a macro and a micro level, it is the lack of judicial resources. On a macro level, in the past 20 years this court has increased our judicial staffing only by one judge. The cases we are seeing today are not the cases we were seeing 5 to 15 years ago. The challenges that kids and families are facing now are exponentially more complex, such as the use of social media and its effect on kids’ brains and the greater exposure of children to marijuana. Every case is so complex. The trauma for the children that existed before is now exacerbated by the pandemic and the isolation. So, these cases are really challenging. We have as complex a case as any Superior Court case, and we have the volume of the busiest District Court. But we only have 42 judges, including myself, covering 44 locations, many of them legislatively mandated. There are many Juvenile Court judges sitting alone, trying to get through those lists. On the micro level, we’re down five judges. We have three mandatory retirements and a couple of voluntary departures that I anticipate in 2025. I think we’ll be turning over ten judges. We’re operating at about a 12% deficiency in judicial staffing. I think we’re reaching a crisis point in the Juvenile Court.

Cristina Freitas: Most people, even those with legal experience, are not fully aware of what the Juvenile Court does, largely due to it being a closed court. What makes the Juvenile Court a special place?

Judge Gershengorn: Our judges have the broadest sentencing discretion of any judge in the Commonwealth. In a youthful offender case, a judge could sentence the juvenile to probation, or to the Department of Youth Services (DYS), or could sentence that child to any term in State prison up to life if the statue allows. The universe of cases has become narrower. Certainly, after the Criminal Justice Reform Act, a lot of the low-level minor misdemeanor cases are never seeing the light of day inside a Juvenile Court, as it should be. The cases that we’re getting now are the more serious and complex cases.

Debbie Freitas: I also think that the Juvenile Court is a promising place for change because you have the opportunity to intervene in kids’ lives in a way that can change their trajectory forever. What would you say to lawyers coming out of law school, or more experienced lawyers contemplating a career change to the Juvenile Court?

Judge Gershengorn: In what other court are you affecting the life of a child every single day? If you want to come and change the world, you should look at practicing in the Juvenile Court because you change the trajectory of one child’s life or one family’s life, which has repercussions for generations. If you’re looking for a job where in the same day you could feel total heartbreak, followed by the highest euphoria of any case you’ve ever handled, or if you are looking for a job where you are involved in improving the life of a child, you should work in the Juvenile Court.

Cristina Freitas: I think it captures how we feel about working in the Juvenile Court. And so that leads us to our next question, what are you passionate about?

Judge Gershengorn: In my personal life? My family, the University of Michigan, and pickleball. Depending on the season, the priorities of those might change. If it’s the fall, the only thing I care about is University of Michigan football. If it’s the summer, you can pretty much find me on the pickleball courts, and then, in the winter, I’m trying to hunker down with my family and just survive the snow.

Debbie Freitas: The Juvenile Court strives to support children growing into their best selves. Given that, what is your favorite childhood memory?

Judge Gershengorn: I don’t know that I have a favorite childhood memory, but I come from a really close family. I’m incredibly close to my siblings. I talk to my parents every day. They’ve been married for 60 years. When I look back on my childhood, that’s what I look back on. I think that’s what my husband and I have tried to create in our family. I have a boy and a girl. They’re 4 years apart and are incredibly close. Having said that, we all bring our life experience, whatever that life experience is, to our jobs. And I have found in the 15 years on the bench that one of the aspects of a family that I tend to focus on are the siblings. Are these siblings going to be placed together or are the siblings being broken up if you have to remove kids from parents? What are we doing to keep these siblings together? Because I have experienced firsthand, and then I have seen with my own kids, that that bond can be the difference between whether or not the children survive the case emotionally.

Cristina Freitas: Juvenile Court is a place where families matter, as you just explained to us. Please tell us a little bit more about your family, maybe a tradition or sibling rivalry, or an important family value.

Judge Gershengorn: Well, we have a lot of lawyers in my family. My mother was a judge and when I was appointed, we were the first and only mother-daughter judge pair ever in the Massachusetts court system. I’m super proud of her, and I think it is one of the reasons I went to law school. My mother loved her job and growing up and seeing that really trickles down. Now, having said that, my daughter is a STEM girl who’s working at the National Institute of Health. So, I’m not sure what I did wrong because I love my job!

Debbie Freitas: Knowing that this interview wasn’t all encompassing, are there any final words that you want to share?

Judge Gershengorn: (pointing to a framed piece of art quoting Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena”) It’s up on my wall. I firmly believe that the people who work in the Juvenile Court are “in the arena.” They are fighting every day for the children and the families in the Commonwealth. They are fighting those battles, whether you are defending a case or prosecuting it. Whether you are in the clerk’s office, whether you are in probation, whether you are the judge, whether you are in security, every one of us, we are in the trenches in the Juvenile Court. I just feel so blessed to work with the people in the Juvenile Court.

Cristina F. Freitas and Debbie F. Freitas are legal training attorneys in the Children & Family Law (CAFL) Division of the Training Unit of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS). They have been in practice for over 14 years, having served as both staff attorneys at CPCS and in private practice. The viewpoints in this piece reflect their personal viewpoints and not those of the agency.