The Hon. Pamela M. Dashiell is First Justice of the South Boston Division of the Boston Municipal Court in Massachusetts. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor Deval Patrick in 2009, filling a vacancy created by the elevation of the Hon. Sydney Hanlon to the Massachusetts Appeals Court.
Prior to her appointment, Dashiell worked as the Director of Planning and Policy Development for the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Court (2006 to 2009).
Dashiell earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and early education from Simmons College in 1975. She then completed a J.D. at Northwestern University School of Law in 1979.
After graduating from law school, Dashiell briefly worked as an assistant state’s attorney for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office before moving to Boston in 1980. She spent the next four years serving as staff counsel to the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, eventually leaving to join the City of Boston Law Department. During her tenure there, she rose through the ranks to become Co-Chief of the Government and Urban Affairs Bureau.
In 1988, Dashiell moved to the private sector as in-house counsel for Digital Equipment Corporation. She worked in that capacity until 1994, at which time she joined the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs as its general counsel. Then, in 1997, she moved to the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General. She entered as an assistant attorney general in the Public Protection Bureau (1997 to 1999) before becoming general counsel for the Executive Bureau (1999 to 2006).
Her memberships have included the Massachusetts Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, the Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys, the Massachusetts Judges Conference, and the Massachusetts Black Judges Conference. She also sat on the Governor’s Diversity and Equal Opportunity Advisory Council, the Codman Square Health Center (vice president), and the Board of Trustees of Charles Street A.M.E. Church.
Dashiell was born in Chicago, Illinois.