Chief Justice Mark V. Green (ret.) served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court from 2017 until his retirement on September 1, 2024. He formerly served as an Associate Justice of the Appeals Court from 2001 until his appointment as Chief Justice, and as a Justice of the Massachusetts Land Court from 1997 until 2001. Prior to his judicial appointment, he practiced transactional real estate law with the firms of Herrick & Smith and Goulston & Storrs before serving as in-house counsel for several financial institutions from 1990 to 1997.
While at the Land Court, Chief Justice Green chaired a committee that promulgated the Land Court's Guidelines for Registered Land. In 2003, at the request of the Supreme Judicial Court, Chief Justice Green chaired the Study Committee on Trial Transcripts. From 2012 until his appointment as Chief Justice, he chaired the combined appellate courts' IT Steering Committee where, among other initiatives, he led the courts' implementation of electronic filing.
Chief Justice Green has been a panelist on numerous continuing legal education programs, and has been a guest lecturer for courses at the Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate Studies. In 2005 and 2009, Chief Justice Green participated in rule of law exchange programs in Russia, and, in 2011, he was a member of a rule of law exchange in the People's Republic of China focused on the American jury trial system.
He was the 2024 recipient of the Boston Bar Association's Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award, the 2024 recipient of the Real Estate Bar Association’s Richard B. Johnson Award for contributions to advancing the practice of real estate law, and was recognized with a 2024 Legacy Award from the Massachusetts Judges Conference.
Chief Justice Green is active in the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal, currently serving as its President-Elect; he will serve as the Council’s President from October 2025 to November 2026.
He received his A.B. degree, with distinction in all subjects, from Cornell University in 1978, and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1982.