PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT
John Adams Courthouse
One Pemberton Square
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
MEDIA ADVISORY
CONTACT: Jennifer Donahue/Erika Gully-Santiago
(617) 557-1114
Jennifer.Donahue@jud.state.ma.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 29, 2024
Honorable Elizabeth N. Dewar to be Ceremonially Sworn In by Governor Healey as Associate Justice of the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
WHAT:
On January 29, 2024, Governor Maura Healey will deliver a ceremonial administration of the Oath of Office in the Great Hall of the John Adams Courthouse, swearing in the Honorable Elizabeth N. Dewar as Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. Justice Dewar was administered the official oath on January 16, 2024.
Supreme Judicial Court Justice Serge Georges, Jr. will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Speakers will include retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer and retired Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford. A musical interlude will be performed by Deputy State Solicitor David C. Kravitz.
Governor Healey and Lt. Governor Kimberly Driscoll will deliver remarks; Justice Dewar will address the audience after Governor Healey administers the ceremonial Oath of Office.
WHEN:
Monday, January 24
4:00 p.m.
WHERE:
John Adams Courthouse
1 Pemberton Square
Boston, MA 02108
The event will also be livestreamed.
About Justice Elizabeth N. Dewar:
Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court, Justice Dewar served as the Commonwealth’s State Solicitor. Justice Dewar was appointed by the Attorney General to serve as the state’s second State Solicitor in 2016. In her role as State Solicitor, she supervised the briefing and arguing of appeals by attorneys throughout the Attorney General’s Office in the Supreme Judicial Court as well as other state and federal courts, advised the Attorney General on exercising her authority to decide whether to appeal adverse decisions, and led the office’s “friend of the court” amicus brief practice, among other responsibilities. She also briefly served as Acting Attorney General in early 2023. As State Solicitor, she served ex officio as a member of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Justice Dewar previously worked as an appellate and trial-level lawyer in private practice at Ropes & Gray LLP, was a civil rights advocate at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and served as a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary, for the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court; the Honorable William A. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, CA; and the late Honorable Louis H. Pollak, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA.
Justice Dewar earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a law degree from the Yale Law School.
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