Hon. John M. Smoot (Ret.)
 
 
 

Work Experience

 

            1990 - 2012              Trial Court Judge - Probate and Family Court – Boston

 

            1980 - 1990               Assistant Register - Probate and Family Court

 

           1978 - 1980               Mediator - Investigator - Probate and Family Court

 

Committees

 

            1995 - 2005              Supreme Judicial Court Judicial Ethics Advisory

                                               Committee

 

            1995 - 1998              Supreme Judicial Court Committee on Fee Generating

                                               Appointments

 

            1990 - 1994              Supreme Judicial Court Committee on Professional

                                               Responsibility for Clerks of Court

 

            1990 - 1996              Board of Directors - American Judicature Society

 

Education

 

           Boston College High School – 1971

 

            Yale University – 1976

 

           Suffolk University Law School – 1981

 

Personal

 

            Married         Elaine Moss Smoot             1978

 

           Children        Benjamin, Elizabeth, John Joseph, Daniel

Chronology
St. Mark's
Boston 
Embalmers
Boston
Queensmen
Boston
Boston College High School
BC High '71
Yale University
Ouch!
Harvard 21 Yale 16
Ouch!
Harvard 10 Yale 7
John Said No to
Skull and Bones
Elaine Said Yes
to John
Family Service Officer
Assistant Register
of Probate
Swearing In Ceremony
Old Courthouse Boston
New Courthouse Boston
National Adoption Day
Probate and Family Court Colleagues Circa 2008
Children 1998
Children 2009
Family 2012
Boston Common  2012

As a trial judge, John received a number of compliments from the Appellate Courts including the following:

 

 

[T]he judge’s thoughtful memorandum of decision and order . . .   (December 1993)

 

 

[The judge’s] findings are detailed and contain helpful references to transcript and exhibits. The judge acted expeditiously in completing his findings and ruling . . .   (March 1994)

 

 

The judge, with commendable promptness, filed a twenty-six-page comprehensive decision comprising a procedural history, 100 findings of fact, a discussion of ancillary issues, and 15 conclusions of law.   (May 1994)

 

 

The judge [issued] “thorough findings and conclusions”.   (July 1996)

 

 

We conclude, on the basis of the judge’s meticulous, comprehensive, and incisive findings of fact and conclusions of law, that . . .   (January 1997)

 

 

We summarize the “extensive and thoughtful findings of the trial judge”.   (March 2007)

 

 

In a thoughtful memorandum of decision . . .

 

In a thoughtful discussion, the judge found . . .

 

The thoughtful process the judge has put in place . . .   (September 2009)

 

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