Leadership of the Superior Court's successful Business Litigation Session
(BLS) will change January 1, 2011, Chief Justice Barbara J. Rouse announced
today. The Business Litigation Session provides a statewide forum for resolution
of commercial disputes.
Judge Judith Fabricant will be the new Administrative Justice of the BLS.
She will replace Judge Margaret R. Hinkle, whose retirement from the bench
becomes final after two years as BLS Administrative Justice. Judge
Fabricant has served in the BLS2, a second session, for six months each year
since 2007. Judge Fabricant and Judge Peter M. Lauriat will alternate six
months each in the BLS1 session, beginning on January 1, 2011.
Chief Justice Rouse also announced that Judge Stephen E. Neel, who since 2008
has annually served for six months in BLS2, is retiring from the bench at the
end of January 2011. Judge Janet R. Sanders and Judge Christine M. Roach
will alternate six months each in BLS2.
"Although we will miss the work ethic and case-management skills of Judge
Hinkle and Judge Neel, we look forward to the revamped judicial team continuing
the quality of excellence that has been a hallmark of the BLS since its
establishment 10 years ago," said Chief Justice Rouse.
Chief Justice Rouse also announced today that the BLS Pilot Project to
streamline discovery, begun last January, will be extended for at least another
calendar year. The voluntary Pilot Project is devoted to streamlining
business disputes through procedures that reduce the burden and cost of
litigation.
Initial reports from the bar about the BLS Pilot Project are favorable.
Robert J. Kaler, a partner at the Boston office of McCarter and English,
states: "The lion's share of the credit for the settlement" of a complex
business case filed in the BLS earlier this year "goes to the Pilot Project, in
which the Court worked with the parties to focus on and resolve some of the
linchpin issues in the case early on, and then closely monitored the parties'
progress in subsequent proceedings, remaining responsive to both parties’
concerns as the case progressed."
Following her graduation from Yale Law School, Judge Fabricant served as law
clerk for Judge Levin H. Campbell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First
Circuit and then worked at the Boston Law firm of Hill & Barlow. She
then served as Assistant Attorney General in the government bureau of the
Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office where she was chief of the government
bureau, chief of the administrative law division, and managing attorney in the
government bureau. Judge Fabricant was appointed a member of the Superior
Court in 1996 and has served as the Regional Administrative Justice for Norfolk
County.
Before Judge Lauriat’s judicial appointment, he practiced commercial law in
Boston for 17 years. Judge Lauriat is a former partner of the Boston law
firms of Herrick & Smith and Peabody & Brown, now known as Nixon Peabody
LLP. Judge Lauriat is an author, editor and contributor to several
publications, including Massachusetts Expert Witnesses, the Massachusetts Jury
Trial Benchbook - Second Edition, Jury Trial Innovations in Massachusetts, and
the Massachusetts Practice Series Volume 49; Discovery. After graduation
from the University of Chicago Law School, Judge Lauriat clerked for Judge Frank
J. Murray of the U.S. District Court.
Judge Sanders is the current Regional Administrative Justice for Norfolk
County. She is also a former associate of the Boston law firm of Hill
& Barlow. Following her graduation from Harvard Law School, Judge
Sanders served as law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel.
Judge Roach, also a Harvard Law School graduate, was a founding partner of
the law firm of Roach & Carpenter, P.C. and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney
in Boston. She served as law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge David
Nelson.