Mass. top appeals judge to retire early; another opening for Healey

The chief justice of the Massachusetts appeals court will step down from his post later this year, giving Governor Maura Healey another high-profile vacancy to fill in the state’s judiciary.

Mark V. Green will retire “at the end of this summer” after serving on the state appeals court since 2001 and for the last six years as its chief, according to an email that he sent his fellow judges Monday and was obtained by the Globe. In a separate letter he sent Healey, Green said he’ll resign Sept. 1 — the day of his 68th birthday.

Green, an appointee of three separate Republican governors, isn’t slated to hit the state’s mandatory retirement age until September 2026. But he said he decided to step down after weighing “a mix of personal and professional considerations,” opening the opportunity for Healey to pick the state’s eighth appeals court chief justice in the coming months.

“In a nutshell, as others who have reached this same point previously have commented to me: ‘when it’s time, you just know,’” Green wrote to his colleagues. He said he was proud to have helped foster a “petri dish of innovation within the judicial branch” at the 25-justice appellate court, and intends to lobby lawmakers for funding for new positions in the coming months.

“I am confident that my successor (whoever they may be) will serve with distinction, and will bring fresh perspectives and talent to the position,” Green wrote.

A real estate lawyer, Green was appointed to the state’s land court in 1997 by former governor Bill Weld. Acting governor Jane Swift later elevated him to the Appeals Court in 2001 before former governor Charlie Baker tapped him as chief justice of the court in 2017 after the Republican appointed Green’s predecessor, Scott Kafker, to the Supreme Judicial Court.

Green wrote that during his tenure, he served with 69 of the 83 justices who have ever served on the appeals court bench — a testament to both his longevity and the relative infancy of the court itself, which was established in 1972. For comparison, the Supreme Judicial Court was established 280 years earlier, in 1692, making it the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere.

Healey, the state’s former attorney general, has nominated 17 judges so far in her term, including two in the Supreme Judicial Court in Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar and Gabrielle R. Wolohojian.

There are likely many more to come. The first-term Democrat will also have to fill at least

SIX YEARS AS CHIEF JUSTICE

Mark Green won’t hit the state’s mandatory retirement age until September 2026.

15 other bench spots held by judges who have reached or are slated to reach mandatory retirement this year, including three Superior Court judges.

While Healey is not barred from looking outside the appellate court for its next chief, governors have traditionally plucked its leader from its current ranks, said Martin W. Healy, chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts Bar Association.

The vacancy, however, does create a chance for a diverse pick, Healy said: A woman has never led the appeals court.