C. Clifford Allen

(1994-2012)

462 Mass. 1303.

At Boston on June 5, 2012, the Supreme Judicial Court announced the retirement of C. Clifford Allen as Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court.

Present: Chief Justice Ireland and Justices Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, and Lenk.

On behalf of the Court, I announce that C. Clifford Allen has retired as Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court, effective June 1, 2012.

Mr. Allen has rendered distinguished service to the Supreme Judicial Court since January 11, 1982, and to the Appeals Court since May 24, 1981. He was appointed Reporter of Decisions on April 15, 1994. Prior to his appointment as Reporter, Mr. Allen served as a Staff Attorney in the Appeals Court and as both Assistant Reporter and Deputy Reporter of the two appellate courts. During this long period, he has worked on or supervised the publication of seventy-eight bound volumes of the Supreme Judicial Court and seventy-two bound volumes of the Appeals Court. His efforts, which coincided with the terms of five Chief Justices and fourteen Associate Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court and all five Chief Justices and all fifty Associate Justices of the Appeals Court, have aided significantly in the compilation and recording of the Commonwealth's jurisprudence.

Mr. Allen's innovations and improvements to the publication process have included the institution of style and procedures manuals that guide the process, the creation of a Web site for distributing and archiving the appellate courts' opinions, the establishment of an automatic electronic mail delivery system of slip opinions that has increased distribution from less than 50 to nearly 9,000 opinions daily, and the development of publishing contracts that have greatly reduced printing costs to the Commonwealth.

In addition to his duties as Reporter of Decisions, Mr. Allen served from 2000 to 2005 on the executive design committee and as the Supreme Judicial Court's facilitator on the project that restored and renovated the John Adams Courthouse. From 2011 to early 2012, he served as the Interim Executive Director of the Supreme Judicial Court. Mr. Allen was president of the Association of Reporters of Judicial Decisions from 1998 to 1999 and, for many years, was the association's newsletter editor and chair of its education committee.

I know I speak for the Justices and staff of both the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court when I say that we have been enriched by Mr. Allen's dedication, his wise counsel, his meticulous attention to detail, and his humor and collegiality. We wish him many years of health, happiness, and the leisure of time with family and friends. We will miss you, Cliff.

These remarks are to be published in the official reports of the court.