Peter J. Rubin was appointed associate justice of the Appeals Court by Governor Deval Patrick, who administered the oath of office on January 15, 2008. Justice Rubin, a native and resident of Newton, is a magna cum laude graduate of both Yale College and Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following his graduation from law school, Justice Rubin served as a law clerk, first to Judge Collins J. Seitz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, then, for two years, to Justice David H. Souter of the United States Supreme Court.
Before his appointment to the Appeals Court, Justice Rubin was a full-time professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught constitutional law and criminal justice. He has written extensively on constitutional law, with a particular focus on equal protection, due process, and voting rights. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Justice Rubin was an appellate litigator, and while teaching at Georgetown, he continued to engage in constitutional and appellate litigation, primarily in the United States Supreme Court. He also was of counsel to the firm of O'Melveny and Myers, LLP in its appellate practice group. Justice Rubin has taught several courses since taking the bench; he is currently teaching an advanced criminal procedure course as a visiting professor at the Harvard Law School.