Many
judges inspired me during my thirty-six years of law practice. For example, I worked with Paul Garrity, alav
ha shalom, in a legal services office in Cambridge. He went on to become the
first judge of the Boston Housing Court and then a judge of the Superior Court.
He left a lasting legacy of improvements in two vital areas.
The Boston
Housing Authority was the landlord of 67 housing projects and managed them very
poorly, harming the residents forced to live there. Judge Garrity greatly improved their lives of
residents by ordering the Authority into
receivership and overseeing improvements there.
Judge
Garrity later presided over a case involving Boston Harbor. You may recall a
picture of Paul in his robes standing at the water’s edge and labeled “Sludge
Judge.” The harbor was shockingly polluted. Paul’s rulings forced the creation
of the Water Resources Authority and prevented 43 Boston-area communities from
spewing raw sewage into the harbor, sparking a cleanup that has benefited
everyone in the area.
The
judge who most inspired me, though, was a judge I never met. He was Louis
Brandeis.
