Hon. Rudolph Kass

From January 1979 to September 2003, the Honorable Rudolph Kass served as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. During his tenure, he was the author of 1,680 opinions of the court as well as approximately 200 single justice memoranda and orders. 

Prior to his appointment to the court, he was a partner in the Boston law firm Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer (now Brown Rudnick). His area of specialty was real estate, concentrating in urban affairs, i.e., urban renewal projects and government assisted housing, zoning, land use planning law, real estate financing, eminent domain and taxation. He was on the drafting committee that wrote the Massachusetts condominium law and was an active practitioner in that area. As counsel to the 1965 special legislative commission on low-income housing, he was a principal draftsman of the statute that created the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency.

During the period between his retirement in June 2000 from the Appeals Court at the constitutionally mandated age, and before being recalled for additional service on the court, he acted as a mediator and arbitrator. He chaired an advisory committee to the Supreme Judicial Court concerning electronic access to trial court records. In addition, he chaired an advisory board to the Governor on ferry service to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. He also acted as an expert on Massachusetts law for the United States State Department in an arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Judge Kass joined The Mediation Group in 2003, resolving disputes over real estate, contracts, insurance coverage issues and a range of other civil matters.

Judge Kass has been involved in numerous community organizations, including the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE), the Ford Hall Forum, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Greater Boston Legal Services. He is a member of the Supreme Judicial Court Judiciary/Media Committee. Judge Kass has taught a real estate course built around commercial leases as an adjunct professor of law at Boston College Law School, as well as edited and authored publications for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. He is a member of the editorial board of the Massachusetts Law Review and a member of the advisory editorial board of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

As an Access to Justice Fellow, Judge Kass will continue to work with Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), mentoring young lawyers. The GBLS mission is to provide free legal assistance to as many low-income families as possible to help them secure some of the most basic necessities of life.