The Honorable Sandra L. Lynch (LAW’71,HON’12)

The Honorable Sandra L. Lynch was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Clinton in 1995, on the recommendation of Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry. She is the first woman to be appointed to that court, which handles federal case appeals from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Puerto Rico. She filled the seat vacated when Justice Stephen Breyer went to the Supreme Court.

She served as Chief Judge of that Circuit from June 2008 to June 2015 and served on the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Lynch was instrumental in the creation of public outreach programs at the Moakley Courthouse, including the education project for elementary, middle and high school students.

The New York Times reported that Judge Lynch's opinions were among the most cited decisions from all federal courts of appeals. For example, her majority opinions in one period were cited by other courts almost 1,000 times and by law reviews over 600 times. She is one of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Judges in America and is listed in other compilations of the best judges.

Judge Lynch is a 1968 graduate of Wellesley College, where she majored in philosophy. She holds a JD cum laude from Boston University Law School in 1971, where she was Articles Editor of the Law Review. She became the first female law clerk in the history of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, when she clerked for Chief Judge Raymond J. Pettine from 1971 to 1973. She has often been the first woman to fill a position.

Judge Lynch was an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, then General Counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Education, where she was trial and appellate counsel for the state in the Boston School desegregation case. She became a partner at Foley, Hoag and Eliot in Boston, where she was head of the Litigation Department, the first woman to do so.

She was President of the Boston Bar Association in 1992-93, where she established the BBA Summer Jobs Program, and successfully promoted state court reform and accountability legislation. She is a member of the Massachusetts Women's Forum. She has been active in the American Bar Association, serving in the House and on committees, and in the National Council of Bar Presidents.

She has been given the Boston University Law School Distinguished Alumnae Award, the American Bar Association's Difference Maker Award, the Wellesley College Distinguished Alumnae Award, an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Suffolk University, the Boston Bar Association's Haskell Cohn and Judicial Excellence Awards, and an award from the Federal Bar Association.

Judge Lynch is the daughter of a career U.S. Army intelligence officer, lived overseas during much of her childhood, and attended high school in Dallas, Texas.

Judge Lynch is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award.