BOSTON — A veteran of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office and longtime appellate attorney has been nominated to become a Superior Court judge by Gov. Maura Healey.
The governor last week put forward Thomas H. Townsend, of Longmeadow, for a Superior Court judge position. Townsend has been the chief of the Appellate Division of the Northwestern DA’s office since 2011. Before that, he served 14 years at the district attorney’s office in Hampden County, where he also handled appeals.
Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan described Townsend as “eminently qualified” for the Superior Court.
“He has the experience, passion for justice and kind temperament to be an outstanding jurist,” Sullivan said in a statement.
Townsend’s nomination proceeds to the Governor’s Council, an eight-member elected body, for confirmation, alongside that of fellow nominee Emily Karstetter.
Townsend’s local confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 31, at 5:30 p.m. at Western New England Law School in Springfield, followed by a hearing in the Governor’s Council Chambers at the State House in Boston on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 11 a.m.
Townsend graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1994 and from the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington in 1997. He clerked for a Circuit Court judge in Indiana, the Honorable Marc R. Kellams, before joining the Hampden County DA’s office.
“I am excited to work with the Governor’s Council to advance these nominees, who have decades of valuable experience in our courtrooms,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said in a statement.
Over his 28-year career, Townsend has argued 46 times in the Supreme Judicial Court, including 15 first-degree murder cases, and has handled more than 250 cases in the Appeals Court, according to the Northwestern DA’s office. Townsend has tried 22 cases to verdict in the Superior Court, either as lead counsel or co-counsel.
The last member of Sullivan’s staff to join the Superior Court bench was then-Chief Trial Counsel Jeremy Bucci, who was nominated by former Gov. Charlie Baker in October 2022.
“Both of these nominees have dedicated their legal careers to serving the people of Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement. “Judge Karstetter and Attorney Townsend both represent the best of public service, and I trust that they will be guided by integrity and the rule of law as Associate Justices of the Superior Court.”