Healey announces 5 nominees to Massachusetts Superior Court

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey has nominated five justices to the Massachusetts Superior Court.

The nominees -- John Fraser, Keren Goldenberg, Julie Green, Matthew Nestor and Deepika Shukla -- will now be considered by the Governor’s Council for confirmation.

“I’m proud to nominate these experienced attorneys to the Superior Court, and I’m confident they will make excellent additions to our justice system,” Healey said in a statement on Wednesday. “We’re grateful to the Governor’s Council for their consideration of the nominees.”

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said in a statement that the nominees “will make great additions to the Superior Court and we’re grateful that they are ready to continue their service to Massachusetts.”

“We are excited to work with the Governor’s Council as they consider these nominees for confirmation,” Driscoll said.

The Superior Court is a trial court of general jurisdiction for Massachusetts. The court’s 82 justices sit in 20 courthouses in all 14 state counties.

The Superior Court has exclusive original jurisdiction of first-degree murder cases, and has original jurisdiction of all other crimes, civil actions over $50,000, matters where people are seeking equitable relief, and actions including labor disputes where people are seeking injunctive relief.

The Superior Court also has exclusive authority to convene medical malpractice tribunals, has appellate jurisdiction over certain administrative proceedings, and may hold naturalization sittings in any city or town.

Healey’s office provided the following biographical information about the nominees:

John Fraser

Fraser is a co-founder and the manager at Fraser Law Office, where he maintains an active trial practice in both criminal defense and civil litigation, having tried more than 40 jury trials. On the criminal side, he has represented clients charged with misdemeanors and felonies at both the District Court and Superior Court levels. On the civil side, his practice includes business formation, commercial litigation, personal injury, and product liability matters. Fraser holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts Amherst and a juris doctor from Suffolk University Law School. He lives in Andover with his spouse and three children.

Keren Goldenberg

Goldenberg is currently principal attorney at the Law Offices of Keren Goldenberg. She practices criminal defense in the Massachusetts superior, district, and juvenile courts, and in federal court. Prior to that she was a trial attorney with the Committee for Public Services in Lowell and with the Legal Aid Society of New York City. Goldenberg is a member of the “murder list” for the Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Criminal Justice Act panel for the U.S. District Court in Boston. Her practice also includes Title IX representation in colleges and universities.

Goldenberg is a board member for the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and serves as secretary of the executive board. She is also a faculty advisor for the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School. Goldenberg holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto and a juris doctor from Northeastern University School of Law. She lives in Belmont.

Julie Green

Green works as the deputy chief of the Constitutional & Administrative Law Division of the Government Bureau in the state attorney general’s office with a focus on appellate, trial advocacy and public law. Green represents the state at the Supreme Judicial Court, Appeals Court and the federal courts. Before joining the attorney general’s office, Green practiced litigation at Todd & Weld LLP. She also clerked for former Senior Judge William Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Green holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a juris doctor from Harvard Law School.

Matthew Nestor

Nestor serves as an associate Justice at the district court level, where he has presided over his own courtroom for nearly 20 years. He began his legal career as a civil litigator, then served as a Suffolk County prosecutor before being appointed as state Deputy Secretary, overseeing the Securities Division prior to joining the bench. Nestor has served as the presiding justice of the Peabody, Chelsea, and Lynn District Courts, as well as the Appellate Division of the District Court. Nestor holds a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, where he was captain of the football and lacrosse teams;, a master’s degree in Public Affairs from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and a juris doctor from Boston College Law School. He lives in Reading.

Deepika Shukla

Shukla currently works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Springfield Branch Office at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts. In this role, she supervises all federal criminal cases in western Massachusetts and has represented the U.S. in criminal prosecutions of hate crimes, excessive force, terrorism, fraud, and violent crimes. She also works as an adjunct professor at Western New England School of Law. She previously worked as a plaintiffs’ civil rights attorney at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and in private practice. Shukla holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a juris doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She lives in Northampton.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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