The Hon. Patricia E. Bernstein (Ret.) was an associate justice of the Boston Municipal Court in Massachusetts. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor Bill Weld in 1994. Bernstein retired in 2015.
During her tenure on the bench, she presided as an associate justice of the Central and Brighton Divisions as well as the Appellate Division of the Municipal Court. In 2005, she was appointed to serve as the adjunct administrative justice of the Boston Municipal Court, a position she held for five years. In that role, Bernstein assisted in the development of a specialized mental health court session, which served as the first of its kind. She would go on to preside over the mental health court session in the Central Division from 2007 until her retirement from the bench.
Bernstein received a B.A. from Connecticut College in 1970. She went on to complete a J.D. at Boston College Law School in 1976.
After law school, Bernstein worked for one year as a hearing examiner for the Brookline Rent Control Board before serving as legislative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Massachusetts Senate.
Bernstein left her post with the State Senate in 1981 to work as an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County. She remained with the District Attorney’s Office until joining the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office as an assistant attorney general in 1988. During her tenure there, Bernstein became chief of the Public Integrity Division in 1991 and chief prosecutor for the Public Protection Bureau in 1993. She remained with the Attorney General’s Office until her appointment to the Municipal Court.
Bernstein also served for ten years as an elected Town Meeting Member in Brookline (1980 to 1990).
Her memberships included the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association (past president and Board of Directors), the American Bar Association, and the National Association of Women Judges. In addition, Bernstein was a member of the Massachusetts Trial Court ADR Implementation Committee and its Committee on Specialty Courts.
She served as a mentor to newly admitted lawyers and recent law school graduates through the Justice Bridge Legal Center at the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Boston.
After retiring from the bench, Bernstein worked as a mediator and arbitrator at Massachusetts Dispute Resolution Services.