Rumor on the street — the streets of Massachusetts, that is — is that Superior Court Judge Ralph Gants is going to be appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) by Governor Deval Patrick. Although my office is in NYC, I started off practicing law in Massachusetts and keep my license active there, not to mention that I have an active case against John Hancock Life Insurance that is venued in Suffolk Superior Court, and so I maintain more than a passing interest in developments that occur in the legal landscape of the commonwealth.
I have never appeared before Judge Gants, and do not know what his political ideology is and the extent to which he puts it into effect from the bench, but he appears to be a quality pick for the commonwealth’s highest court. I say this because I have read some of his decisions in the area of life insurance and conflicts of law, and they are scholarly, well-reasoned, and fair. It is, in fact, relatively uncommon for Superior Court judges to write lengthy decisions that cite case law in the same vein that Gants does. In short, he strikes me as a smart judge, and with politics seeping more and more into the judiciary, it is always good to see intelligent candidates put on the bench.
Kudos to Governor Patrick for this pick.
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A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge. See Demoulas v. Demoulas Super Mkts., Inc., 428 Mass. 543, 551-552 (1998). The greatest lawyer, however, has a social relationship with the judge, and is allowed to bribe the judge sitting on his own personal case. Guess which state EVEN THAT is OK in.