UMass Amherst Alumnus David A. Lowy Confirmed as Supreme Judicial Court Judge

David Lowy
David Lowy

AMHERST, Mass. – Salem Superior Court Judge David A. Lowy, a University of Massachusetts Amherst alumnus, has been confirmed by the eight-member Governor’s Council to serve on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The confirmation vote was unanimous. Lowy is the first UMass Amherst graduate to serve on the court.

Lowy was one of three judges nominated by Gov. Charlie Baker to fill vacancies on the state’s highest court.

Lowy earned his bachelor’s degree in history from UMass Amherst in 1983 graduating as part of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. He went on to earn his law degree from Boston University in 1987. A native of Peabody, he now lives in Marblehead with his family.

“We are very proud that Judge Lowy, a UMass Amherst alumnus, is now a member of the state’s highest court,” says Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy. “His career has been one of great distinction and we’re confident his commitment to public service will continue in his new post. Judge Lowy’s success demonstrates how public higher education can play a key role in helping people succeed.”

Last fall, Lowy was among a group of six distinguished panelists at a special Evening With Alumni Justices in Boston, presented by the Legal Alumni Network of the UMass Alumni Association.

Lowy served with Baker in the administration of Gov. William Weld after clerking for federal Judge Edward F. Harrington and working as an assistant district attorney in Essex County. He joined the Weld administration in 1991 and helped draft the governor’s first anti-crime legislative package in 1993. Lowy served as Weld’s deputy chief legal counsel.

Weld appointed Lowy to be a district court judge in 1997 and Gov. Paul Cellucci appointed him to the Superior Court in 2001. As a district court judge in Lynn in the mid-1990s, Lowy presided over the newly created drug court that was designed to give drug users a chance to reintegrate into the community.

Prior to his appointment to the district court, Lowy left the Weld administration and joined the Suffolk County district attorney’s gang unit. Lowy also has extensive experience in academia. He has been an adjunct professor of law at Boston University School of Law since 2006, teaching evidence and trial advocacy and has also been an adjunct professor of law at New England Law Boston since 1991, teaching evidence and criminal procedure classes. He was also an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School for 11 years.