The Honorable Margaret H. Marshall (retired)

Prior to her service on the Supreme Judicial Court, Chief Justice Marshall was in private practice for sixteen years, and was a partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart, before joining Harvard University as Vice President and General Counsel in 1992.

Chief Justice Marshall then served on the Supreme Judicial Court as an Associate Justice from 1996 to 1999, and as Chief Justice from 1999-2010.  She was the first woman to hold the Chief Justice position in the Court’s more than three hundred year history.  A graduate of Witwatersrand University (Johannesburg, South Africa), Harvard University, and Yale Law School, Chief Justice Marshall gained a national reputation for both her landmark decisions and her reforms of the Massachusetts court system.

During her fourteen years on the Supreme Judicial Court, Chief Justice Marshall wrote more numerous opinions, many of them groundbreaking, including the 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health.  The ruling made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage.  She is recognized as a champion for an independent judiciary and as a leader in the promotion of administrative reforms within the judicial branch.  Her reforms greatly improved the delivery of justice, with significant decreases in case backlogs and in the length of time between the filing and resolution of cases, as well as in cost-savings throughout the system.  A long-time advocate of access to justice for all, she implemented innovative procedures for self-represented litigants and strengthened pro bono services by the bar.

She has received numerous awards recognizing her judicial and other accomplishments, including the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the ABA’s Pursuit of Justice Award, the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Chief Justice Edward F. Hennessey Award for outstanding leadership in the administration of justice, and the Boston Bar Association Award for Judicial Excellence.

Chief Justice Marshall will serve as an Honorary Fellow for the Access to Justice Fellows Program.