Gov. Maura Healey nominated state Solicitor Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar to serve on the state’s highest court Friday, clearing one of two Supreme Judicial Court picks the governor was handed this year.
Dewar will fill outgoing Justice Elspeth Cypher’s seat, who plans to retire on Jan. 12, 2024 after serving as an associate justice on the Supreme Judicial Court for nearly seven years.
Healey said Dewar is a “consensus builder who has significant experience working with the Supreme Judicial Court and also a deep passion for the important work that the court does.”
“She is a true student of the institution, and I am confident that she is the right person to fill this seat in this pivotal moment for the court,” Healey said in a statement.
All seven members of the court were selected by former Gov. Charlie Baker, stretching back to Associate Justices Frank Gaziano and David Lowy, whose oaths were administered days apart in August 2016.
Advocates quickly praised Healey’s nomination of Dewar to the court.
Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder said state supreme courts play a vital role in defending reproductive rights, “and that has never been more true than in a post-Dobbs America.”
” As state solicitor, Elizabeth Dewar has continuously led efforts to advance reproductive equity within Massachusetts’ borders and combat anti-abortion attacks across the country. Bessie played an integral role in the Attorney General’s office, authoring briefs against Texas Law SB8, the Texas six-week abortion ban and bounty hunter law,” Holder said in a statement.
Dewar briefly served as acting attorney general this year when Healey transitioned out of the office to become governor.
Dewar was selected as Massachusetts’ second state solicitor in 2016. She supervises the briefing and arguing of appeals by attorneys throughout the Attorney General’s office in state and federal courts and advises the attorney general on whether to appeal adverse decisions.
Most of Dewar’s appellate work is in the Supreme Judicial Court, Healey’s office said, including reviewing dozens of briefs filed with the court, advising on matters pending in the Appeals Court, and tracking some cases taken by the court.
She previously worked as a lawyer for Ropes & Gray, was a civil rights advocate at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and served as a law clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.
Dewar, a Jamaica Plain resident, graduated from Harvard College and the Yale Law School and has a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge.
Healey will also need to select a replacement for David Lowy, who announced in November that he plans to retire in February 2024.
