A Message from Our Committee
Last week, we lost two great leaders in our community, our own Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants and United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We encourage everyone in the community to take time to grieve, reflect, and honor the lives of these two individuals; a practice essential to our own self-care and well-being.
Below we provide a few words about our own Chief Justice. We are all deeply saddened by his recent and sudden death, which is an enormous loss for our entire community. It would take far beyond a page of words to convey the multitude of ways in which he impacted the lives of so many and influenced positive changes in our legal system.
Members of our Committee provided the following thoughts and remembrances of the Chief:
“A truly human being with more heart, intelligence, energy, sense of mission and purpose, sense of humor, and true kindness deep within his being than anyone I have ever known.”
“Such a loss for the profession, the state, and society in general.”
“I enjoyed practicing in a profession where he was our leader. What a tremendous loss to the bench, bar and community as a whole.”
“He turned everyone he met into an advocate for something.”
“He was one of the most important forces of good I’ve ever encountered in this world, and more selfishly, he was one of the most important people in my life and likely the best mentor I’ll ever have.”
“He made me so proud to be a part of this bar. And, his words of unity, particularly over these last few years, inspired me and kept me going through some dark times.”
“He made me feel safe; he made me feel like I was not alone.”
*We encourage you to view and share memories of the Chief via https://www.mass.gov/info-details/in-memoriam-of-chief-justice-ralph-d-gants.
Chief Justice Gants’ leadership and commitment to improving lawyer well-being paved the way for the work of our Committee. As someone who was intensely driven to improve our profession and ensure the fair administration of justice, he carried a great load of responsibility. His efforts over the past six months can be described as nothing less than heroic. For us, his death raises the level of significance of our work and compels recognition of the complexities inherent in our desire as lawyers to pursue zealous advocacy and justice but to also extend that compassion and energy to our families and ourselves.
As we move forward, we are driven by the ideals that the Chief fought for and embodied, and as we continue to pursue well-being in our profession, we will honor his legacy.
