A strong contingency of MBA members will serve on the new Judicial Nominating Commission. Gov. Mitt Romney officially appointed the members on March 3 when he signed Executive Order 445 reconstituting the commission.
The 21-member commission, which will review judicial applications and advise Gov. Romney on judicial appointments, includes Past MBA Presidents Jeffrey L. McCormick and Edward Ryan Jr.
McCormick, of Robinson Donovan Madden & Barry PC of Springfield, also has served on the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, Massachusetts Project on Public Trust and Confidence in the Justice System and as an officer in the Massachusetts Bar Institute.
Ryan, of O'Connor and Ryan PC of Fitchburg, also serves as a member of the Board of Editors of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.
Also on the commission is MBA member and Massachusetts Law Review editor Janet Hetherwick Pumphrey of Lenox, a sole practitioner in Berkshire County.
Chairing the committee is MBA member and former Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II, now a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP.
Other MBA members serving on the committee include J.W. Carney Jr., Stephen Y. Chow, Paul T. Dacier, Katherine A. Field, John O. Mirick, Maria C. Moynihan, Frances L. Robinson and William F. Sullivan.
Carney, a founding partner of Carney & Bassil PC in Boston, is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He is a former assistant district attorney in Middlesex County and also a former member of the Judicial Nominating Commission.
Chow, of Perkins, Smith & Cohen LLP in Boston, serves as an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University Law School and is a member of the Boston Patent Law Society, where he serves as chairman of Trade Secrets.
Dacier, senior vice president and general counsel of EMC Corp. in Hopkinton, is the director of the New England Legal Foundation, a trustee of the Boston Bar Foundation and an alumnus of the Judicial Nominating Commission under the previous administration.
Field, of Gay & Gay Attorneys PC in Taunton, is past president of the Bristol County Bar Association and Taunton Bar Association.
Mirick, of Mirick, O'Connel, DeMallie & Lougee LLP in Worcester, was co-editor of Massachusetts Superior Court Civil Practice Jury Instructions and the author of the "Jury Issues" chapter in Massachusetts Superior Court Civil Practice Manual.
Moynihan, of Morgan, Brown & Joy LLP of Boston, formerly served in the criminal bureau of the Attorney General's Office as well as Department of Social Services and Middlesex County District Attorney's Office. She received the Lawyer of the Year Award from the North Shore Woman Lawyers Association.
Robinson, of Davis, Robinson & White LLP in Boston, has been a guest speaker for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and for trial advocacy courses at Harvard Law School.
Sullivan, of Sullivan and Largey of Quincy, is past president of the Norfolk County Bar Association, a former assistant district attorney and is co-author of "Prosecuting and Defending Sexual Abuse Cases."
Other members of the Judicial Nominating Commission include Kimberly S. Budd of Harvard University, general counsel department; Diane Coffey of Suffolk County Sheriff's Department; John D. Donovan Jr. of Ropes & Gray; Kenneth J. Fiandaca of East Boston; Nereyda F. Garcia of Haemonetics Corp.; Jerry Howland of Roslindale; Howard M. Kahalas of the Law Offices of Howard M. Kahalas of Boston; Christine M. Roach of Roach & Carpenter PC; and Evelynne L. Swagerty of Fleet Boston Financial Corp.