Francis X. Spina (born November 13, 1946) is a former Associate Justice of the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...

Biography

Justice Spina graduated from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

and

Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 studen ...

. He worked for Western Massachusetts Legal Services and then as an Assistant City Solicitor in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

from 1975 to 1977. From 1979 to 1983, he served as a Second Assistant District Attorney in

Berkshire County Berkshire County (pronounced ) is a county on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded in ...

. From 1983 to 1993, Justice Spina was a partner at Reder, Whalen, & Spina and then Katz, Lapointe and Spina. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1993. In 1997, he was appointed to the

Massachusetts Appeals Court The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same ...

, where he served until his appointment to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1999 by Governor

Paul Cellucci Argeo Paul Cellucci (; April 24, 1948 – June 8, 2013) was an American politician and diplomat from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Republican, he served as the 69th governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2001, and as the United State ...

. Spina retired from the court on August 12, 2016.Frank Phillips, "Cellucci taps Cowin, Spina for SJC posts", ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', September 3, 1999

References

Living people Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Boston College Law School alumni Amherst College alumni 1946 births People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts Massachusetts Superior Court justices Judges of the Massachusetts Appeals Court {{Massachusetts-state-judge-stub