Sabita Singh, the first Indian American judge in Massachusetts, was nominated May 31 by Gov. Charlie Baker to serve on the state’s Appeals Court. Singh – who served as the president of the South Asian Bar Association from 2005 to 2006 and has also served as the president of SABA’s Greater Boston chapter – was appointed to the state’s District Court by Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006. The jurist was born in Bihar, and moved to the U.S. with her parents when she was three.
Singh was appointed to the District Court in 2006 by Governor Mitt Romney. Judge Singh is “well respected within the District Courts and come with decades of experience serving the Commonwealth,” said Governor Charlie Baker. Judicial nominations are subject to the advice and consent of the Governor’s Council.
“Judge Singh and Attorney Kelley are well respected within the District Courts and come with decades of experience serving the Commonwealth,” said Baker, referring to a second nomination of Michelle Kelley as Clerk Magistrate of the Wrentham District Court. Both nominations will have to be confirmed by the Massachusetts Governor’s Council.
“If confirmed both the Appeals and District Courts will benefit greatly from their knowledge, commitment and skill,” said the governor.
Applicants for judicial openings are reviewed by the Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) and recommended to the governor. Governor Baker established the JNC in February, 2015 pursuant to Executive Order 558, a non-partisan, non-political Commission composed of volunteers from a cross-section of the Commonwealth’s diverse population to screen judicial applications. Twenty-one members were later appointed to the JNC in April, 2015.
The Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court to which most appeals from the Massachusetts Trial Courts and a number of administrative bodies are made. The Court has one Chief and 24 Associate Justices. Singh is First Justice of Concord District Court.
She is also a member of the District Court’s Appellate Division where she hears appeals from District Court civil matters. She began her career as a law clerk to the justices in the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court. She then went on to serve as an Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, writing appellate briefs and arguing before the Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court.
Thereafter, Judge Singh spent seven years in the private sector with Bingham McCutchen LLP before returning to the public sector as Special Counsel for Criminal Civil Rights Enforcement at the United States Attorney Office in Boston.
She received her Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law in 1990 and her Bachelor of Arts in the Administration of Justice from Pennsylvania State University in 1987. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University School of Law and Instructor at Harvard University. She has also served as President of the South Asian Bar Association of North America and the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston. Justice Singh was born in India and now resides with her family in Lincoln.