News  Supreme Judicial Court to Hold Special Sitting to Present Memorial to the Honorable Herbert P. Wilkins

WHAT:
The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court will hold a special sitting for the presentation of a memorial to the Honorable Herbert P. Wilkins, who passed away onMay 27, 2025. Appointed in 1972, Justice Wilkins served on the Supreme Judicial Court for almost three decades. He was appointed Chief Justice in 1996 and served in that role until his retirement in 1999. 

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly S. Budd will open the proceedings. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell will present the memorial and make a motion that the minutes of the memorial be placed in the record of the Court. Attorneys Michael Tuteur and Nancy Dolberg will speak on behalf of Chief Justice Wilkins’ former law clerks. Retired Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justices Margaret H. Marshall and Roderick L. Ireland also will offer remarks, with Chief Justice Ireland acting on the motion on behalf of the Court.

The Reporter of Decisions will gather the remarks of the speakers for inclusion in the Massachusetts Reports. The Reporter has been publishing memorials for more than 200 years, beginning with the first memorial sitting held a decade after the creation of the Office of the Reporter of Decisions. The first memorial was of Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons, on November 23, 1813.

WHEN: 
Wednesday, May 13 at 3:00 p.m.

WHERE:
John Adams Courthouse
Courtroom One
Boston, MA 02108

The program will also be livestreamed on https://boston.suffolk.edu/sjc/.

Biography of The Honorable Herbert P. Wilkins, Chief Justice

The Honorable Herbert P. Wilkins was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor Francis W. Sargent in 1972. In 1996, Governor William F. Weld appointed him Chief Justice, and he served in that role until his retirement in 1999.

Prior to his judicial appointment, Chief Justice Wilkins was a partner in the Boston law firm of Palmer & Dodge from 1960 until 1972 and had been an associate in the same firm from 1954 to 1959. 

A graduate of Harvard College, Chief Justice Wilkins received an A.B. degree in 1951, and an LL.B. degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1954, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review.

In 1991, Chief Justice Wilkins was the recipient of the prestigious Haskell Cohn Award for Distinguished Judicial Service presented by the Boston Bar Association, and in 1997 he received a Citation of Judicial Excellence from the Boston Bar Association.  

Chief Justice Wilkins was a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the council of the American Law Institute. He was a former president of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College and a former trustee of Milton Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy.

Chief Justice Wilkins was the son of a former Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice, Raymond S. Wilkins, who served in that position from 1956 to 1970. Prior to that, the elder Wilkins was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court for twelve years.