Judge Elaine M. Moriarty: Professional Background and Legal Expertise

The Hon. Elaine M. Moriarty (Ret.) was an associate justice of the Norfolk County Probate and Family Court in Massachusetts. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor Michael Dukakis in 1989. Moriarty retired in 2017.

During her tenure on the bench, she presided over the Fiduciary Litigation Session in Norfolk County, a special session in which certain complex probate litigation cases may be reassigned. Moriarty also presided on the Probate and Family Court in Suffolk County.

She received a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in 1969. Moriarty went on to complete a J.D. at Boston College Law School in 1973.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was a partner at Burns and Levinson, where she began as an associate in 1982. Before joining the firm, Moriarty worked as an assistant register with the Middlesex County Probate and Family Court for six years and was with the Boston Legal Aid Society before that.

Moriarty served as a hearing examiner with the Board of Bar Overseers and was a member of the Domestic Relations Task Force of the Special Study Commission of the Equal Rights Amendment and chair of the Probate and Family Court Department Pro Se Committee and the Planning Committee.

Her other memberships included the Massachusetts Statewide Conference on Unrepresented Litigants, the Supreme Judicial Court’s Commission on Juvenile Justice, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, the Association of Women Lawyers, the Catholic Lawyers Guild, and the Boston College Law School Alumni Association.

Moriarty also served as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Responsible Fatherhood and Family Support.

She has been a co-author and contributing author for several legal treatises and has contributed articles to the Boston Bar Journal.

Moriarty was born in Boston, Massachusetts.