Legal Career
From 1976 to 1989, she was an associate and a partner in private practice at the Boston law firm of Csaplar & Bok. From 1989 to 1992, she was a partner in the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart. Also from 1991 to 1992, she was President of the Boston Bar Association, the oldest bar association in the United States. From 1992-1996, she was General Counsel to Harvard University.
Marshall was appointed to be an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1996 by Republican Governor William F. Weld. She was named as Chief Justice in September 1999 by Republican Governor Paul Cellucci, to begin her term on October 14, 1999. She is the second woman to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court, the oldest appellate court in the Western Hemisphere, and the first to serve as Chief Justice in its more than 300 year history.
In the course of her term, she wrote over 200 opinions. Marshall wrote the decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that declared that the Massachusetts Constitution does not permit the state to deny citizens the right to same-sex marriage.
On July 21, 2010, Marshall announced her decision to retire from the Court, effective at the end of October. Marshall said her decision was prompted by a desire to spend more time with her husband, former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Marshall formerly served as a member of the Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University.
Read more about this topic: Margaret H. Marshall
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