Erin Murphy latest councilor to try for lifetime sinecure in administrative job

Kelly Garrity reports that Councilor Erin Murphy (at large) is going to run this fall for the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County's clerk job that Maura Doyle recently announced she is retiring from.

Garrity reports that Murphy told her that her decades as a BPS teacher and her time on the council have well prepared her to handle what the clerk's office says is its responsibilities for "the single justice caseload of the Supreme Judicial Court, administrative and disciplinary matters filed by the Board of Bar Overseers affecting members of the bar, and matters relating to Bar Admission and the practice of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

According to her official bio, Doyle:

[R]eceived a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice, cum laude, from Northeastern University in 1977 and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University School of Law in 1981. She has been a member of the bar since 1981. Before joining the SJC's Clerk's office in 1992 as an assistant clerk, she was a civil litigator in the state and federal courts for 11 years and served as an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School.

Mrs. Doyle is a guest lecturer at bar association meetings across the state, MCLE and CPCS training sessions, and law school forums. She has served as a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court committees on the rules of civil and appellate procedure; professionalism; electronic filing; and information technology and is currently a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s steering committee on bar admissions and committee to study S.J.C. Rule 3:03 (student practitioner rule).

Murphy will be running against Allison Cartwright, who, like Doyle, is an attorney. She's been a lawyer for 23 years, and is currently managing director for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

If elected, Murphy would be the latest councilor to move from that body to a state or city administrative position.

After losing a re-election bid, at-large Councilor Steve Murphy won election as Suffolk County register of deeds. Fellow former at-large Councilor Felix Arroyo was elected Suffolk County register of probate. Former at-large and District 6 (Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury) Councilor Maura Hennigan is now clerk magistrate for Suffolk Superior Court's criminal division. Former Councilor (Dorchester) Maureen Feeney succeeded former Councilor Rosario Salerno (at large) as city clerk.

If Murphy does win the position, Bridget Nee-Walsh, who came in fifth for the race for the four at-large council seats in 2023, could fill the remainder of Murphy's term if she decides to take the job. That is how perennial candidate Althea Garrison finally got to spend a year on the council - she came in fifth in the 2017 elections, which under council rules meant she was offered the at-large seat Ayanna Pressley vacated after winning election to Congress in 2018.