Northampton – Governor Maura Healey announced that she has nominated a veteran of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office and longtime appellate attorney, Thomas H. Townsend, to become a Superior Court judge.
Townsend, of Longmeadow, has been the Chief of the Appellate Division of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office since 2011, following a 14-year tenure at the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office, where he also handled appeals.
Townsend graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1994, and from Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington in 1997. He clerked for the Honorable Marc R. Kellams, a Circuit Court judge in Indiana, before joining the Hampden County District Attorney’s office.
Townsend’s nomination now advances to the Governor’s Council, an eight-member elected body that votes whether to approve judicial nominations. Over his 28-year career, Townsend has argued 46 times in the Supreme Judicial Court – including 15 first-degree murder cases – and has handled over 250 cases in the Appeals Court, the vast majority of which originated in the Superior Court. He has tried 22 cases to verdict in the Superior Court, either as lead counsel or co-counsel.
Townsend is also a frequent presenter and contributor to continuing legal education, including a chapter in the Superior Court Practice series. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
The last member of District Attorney Sullivan’s staff to join the Superior Court bench was then Chief Trial Counsel Jeremy Bucci, whom former Governor Charlie Baker nominated in October 2022.
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