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
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)