We wish to take a moment to offer our sincere thanks to Maura Sweeney Doyle, a native of Winthrop, who announced last week that she will not be seeking re-election to the office of Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) for Suffolk County, a post she has held for the past 28 years.
Although the clerk’s job is elected only by the voters of Suffolk County, the clerk serves the entire state in two important areas. The first is that the office handles all petitions to a single justice of the SJC from throughout the state. Requests for injunctions and other emergency relief, including all petitions for which there is no specific statutory authorization to another court, are handled through the office of the SJC Clerk for Suffolk County.
The other is that the office handles applications for the Massachusetts Bar (every lawyer in Massachusetts is sworn-in by the Clerk of the SJC for Suffolk County, who signs every bar admission certificate) as well as all bar disciplinary proceedings.
Generally speaking, both of these functions are what are referred to as under-the-radar in terms of the public’s perception (although SJC single justices have handled many high-profile matters over the years), and only when there is a mishap do they receive public scrutiny.
However, during Maura’s 28-year tenure as the clerk, there never was even a suggestion of anything improper, which is another way of saying that she performed her job with the utmost degree of professionalism and integrity.
During an era when public service is viewed under a microscope and criticized for everything imaginable (whether fairly or unfairly), Maura Sweeney Doyle epitomized the ideal of a public servant who went about her job day-in and day-out without fanfare and with a deep commitment to serving the public interest.
We know we join with all of our fellow citizens of the Commonwealth in thanking Maura for her three decades of exemplary service and wishing her the best in her retirement years.