Healey Nominates Solicitor Elizabeth Dewar To SJC

Guv’s First SJC Nomination May Serve Till 2050

DEC. 8, 2023…..Gov. Maura Healey regarded outdoors the judiciary for her first nomination to the state’s highest court docket and tapped State Solicitor Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar, who briefly succeeded Healey as lawyer common earlier this yr, for a Supreme Judicial Court docket gown Friday.

Dewar is the primary individual to be nominated for a spot on the SJC bench with out already having been confirmed as a choose in a decrease court docket since Robert Cordy, a former federal prosecutor and prime authorized advisor to Gov. William Weld, was nominated to the SJC by Gov. Paul Cellucci in 2000.

If she is confirmed by the Governor’s Council, Dewar will fill the SJC seat that Justice Elspeth Cypher is giving up when she retires on Jan. 12, 2024. Healey’s Supreme Judicial Court docket Nominating Fee is continuous to just accept purposes for the seat that can be vacated when Justice David Lowy steps down in February.

Dewar may be in line for a prolonged tenure on the bench. She is 43 years outdated and received’t attain the state’s obligatory judicial retirement age of 70 till July 4, 2050.

“Bessie Dewar is a consensus builder who has important expertise working with the Supreme Judicial Court docket and likewise a deep ardour for the essential work that the Court docket does. She is a real scholar of the establishment, and I’m assured that she is the best individual to fill this seat on this pivotal second for the Court docket,” Healey stated in an announcement. “I’m grateful for the onerous work of the Supreme Judicial Nominating Fee to suggest her and for the Governor’s Council’s cautious consideration of her nomination.”

Dewar served as performing lawyer common between Healey’s resignation from that workplace to be sworn in as governor on Jan. 5 and the Jan. 18 inauguration of Andrea Campbell, who received the 2022 election for AG. First Assistant Legal professional Normal Kate Prepare dinner was in line to function performing AG, however Healey tapped her to be chief of workers within the governor’s suite. Healey appointed Dewar as first assistant lawyer common to exchange Prepare dinner.

In response to her workplace, Healey in 2016 named Dewar to function the state’s second state solicitor. In that function, Dewar supervises the briefing and arguing of appeals by attorneys all through the lawyer common’s workplace, advises the AG on exercising her authority to resolve whether or not to attraction from adversarial selections, and leads the workplace’s “good friend of the court docket” amicus transient follow in state and federal courts.

“Throughout her time within the AG’s Workplace, Bessie has served the Commonwealth with integrity, sound judgement, and a real want to assist the general public. She is an distinctive lawyer and one that helped set up the Workplace of the State Solicitor and now leads that workplace and its work,” Campbell stated. “Bessie is held in excessive esteem by all those that have had the privilege of studying from or working alongside her, together with me. I’m happy that Bessie’s long-standing dedication to the legislation and public service will proceed to serve and higher the Commonwealth, following her nomination — and, I hope, affirmation — to the SJC.”

The state’s first solicitor, Peter Sacks, was nominated to the Appeals Court docket by Gov. Charlie Baker and confirmed by the Governor’s Council in August 2016. Dewar was assistant state solicitor underneath Sacks.

Reproductive Fairness Now President Rebecca Hart Holder highlighted Dewar’s work within the lawyer common’s workplace, significantly round reproductive rights. She stated Dewar wrote briefs opposing Texas’s six-week abortion ban and bounty hunter legislation, and “made crucial contributions to dozens of multistate briefs filed in instances throughout the nation relating to abortion entry and gender-affirming care.”

“State supreme courts have at all times had a significant function to play in defending reproductive freedom, and that has by no means been extra true than in a post-Dobbs America. As state solicitor, Elizabeth (Bessie) Dewar has repeatedly led efforts to advance reproductive fairness inside Massachusetts’ borders and fight anti-abortion assaults throughout the nation,” Hart Holder stated. “We all know that Bessie will convey her good authorized thoughts to the Supreme Judicial Court docket to make profound impacts and create an enduring legacy for reproductive freedom within the commonwealth.”

Dewar beforehand labored as an appellate and trial-level lawyer at Ropes & Grey LLP, was a civil rights advocate on the Public Curiosity Legislation Heart of Philadelphia and served as a legislation clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court docket, Decide William Fletcher of the U.S. Court docket of Appeals, and U.S. District Court docket Decide Louis Pollak.

She is a graduate of Harvard Faculty and the Yale Legislation Faculty and has a grasp’s diploma from the College of Cambridge. She lives in Jamaica Plain together with her husband and two daughters.