Barbara Lenk has won confirmation for a seat on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. She now becomes the first openly gay or lesbian person to sit on Massachusetts’s highest court. Here is Justice Lenk’s bio from the Massachusetts Appeals Court’s web site (where she sat as a judge prior to being elevated to the Supreme Judicial Court):
Associate Justice Barbara A. Lenk was born in Queens, New York. She received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Fordham University in 1972; a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Yale University in 1978; and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1979. She began her legal career in 1979 at the Boston law firm of Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer (now known as Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels), and became a partner there. Her practice focused on civil litigation, with a specialty in First Amendment matters. In 1993 Governor William Weld appointed her to the Superior Court, where she served until 1995, when Governor Weld appointed her to the Appeals Court; she took her seat as an appellate justice on June 20, 1995. Justice Lenk has been involved in a number of bar-related and other civic activities. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association; as Chair of the Board of Editors of the Boston Bar Journal; and as a member of the Judicial Administration Council of the Massachusetts Bar Association. She currently serves as a Trustee of Western New England College and as a member of the Boston Inn of Court.
Congratulations, Justice Lenk!
-Tony Infanti
