EDITORIAL: Translate the Movement to Action - Here Are 5 Candidates for the RI Supreme Court
Editorial
EDITORIAL: Translate the Movement to Action - Here Are 5 Candidates for the RI Supreme Court
Now, it is time for Rhode Island to face its history -- and it has an immediate opportunity to demonstrate change.
In Rhode Island's past, every member of the State Supreme Court has been a male except for three women -- and all have been white.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCurrently, the state has its first vacancy in ten years on the court. The time to desegregate the court is long overdue.
Governor Gina Raimondo is pushing for Rhode Island State Senator Erin Lynch Prada to fill the vacancy — a 12-year state legislator and by all accounts. highly competent. However, neither her legal education, nor her resume. distinguishes her from the norm.
Her resume can be found here. She has no experience as a judge.
Raimondo is pushing her candidacy and some have said there is a concerted effort to circumvent Rhode Island’s revolving door statute.
The statute was passed in the 1990s to reform and establish the appropriate separation between the legislature and the court, as too often legislators were named directly to the court.
The revolving door prohibition was not affirmed by the Ethics Commission.
“99 times out of 100 [the Ethics Commission] takes legal advice from the staff and they adopt it. [This week] the staff gave a legal recommendation that Senator Lynch Prata is subject to the revolving door prohibition, meaning she can't apply — it would be illegal for her to apply. And they did not accept the staff's advice, as they voted it down five to two,” said Common Cause's John Marion on GoLocal LIVE.
The Governor and legislative leaders should understand that there are outstanding candidates and now is the time to name a highly qualified minority to the state's highest court. No more excuses.
Here are five potential candidates - with impressive resumes.
Superior Court Judge Melissa Long
Long earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia. She later received her J.D. from George Mason University. Long was deputy secretary of state for the Rhode Island Secretary of State at the time of her appointment. She previously worked as senior legal counsel for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
She was appointed to the Superior Court in 2017.
Mayor Angel Taveras
The former Mayor of Providence has built a solid law practice at a major Boston-firm, where he “focuses his practice on municipal restructuring, public finance, commercial litigation, pension litigation and public infrastructure."
"With over 14 years of experience in litigation, he is a licensed attorney in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. His litigation practice includes complex commercial matters, including matters arising under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, as well as bankruptcy litigation, zoning and land use, shareholder disputes, and election recounts and challenges.”
Taveras is a graduate of Harvard University undergrad and Georgetown Law.
Matthew Lopes, Jr.
Lopes is a Principal with Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O'Gara LLC. He is a nationally recognized Special Master for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, in the matter of Coleman v. Brown, overseeing prison reform and compliance with orders of the Court concerning care of seriously mentally ill inmates.
As Special Master, Lopes heads a team of deputy special masters, mental health clinical experts, mental health management/custodial experts, and monitors. Lopes' work as Special Master involves confronting complex constitutional law issues relating to the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. An outstanding athlete at East Providence High School and Dartmouth.
He graduated from Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania for law school.
Dennis Coleman
Coleman leads a nationwide sports, media, and entertainment practice at one of the top law firms in Boston - Ropes & Gray.
Coleman represents a variety of sports industry clients, such as the National Football League, the Boston Red Sox, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and a variety of head football and basketball coaches and broadcasters in contract, sponsorship, and endorsement matters. Coleman's clients include over 25 head coaches in basketball and football, including Ed Cooley of Providence College, Ashley Howard of La Salle University, Johnny Dawkins of University of Central Florida and Jeff Jones of Old Dominion University. Coleman also represents Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, who is a sportscaster at NBC Sports and former head coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.
He also has deep experience in business law.
In addition, Coleman works regularly with partners across the firm to solve complex problems for sports industry clients, such as compliance and enforcement issues with government enforcement partners and intellectual property and licensing issues with IP partners.
He was a star quarterback at Brown University and on October 6, 1973, when he lined up against Penn's Marty Vaughn, it was the first-ever matchup between two black starting quarterbacks in more than 100 years of major college football.
Coleman was a Brown undergrad and Georgetown Law alum.
Mayor Allan Fung
Fung currently serves as Mayor of Cranston. He was first elected in 2008. He previously served as a city-wide councilman from 2003 to 2007.
Fung was a litigation associate with Mandell, Schwartz & Boisclair from 1996-1999, a prosecutor in the Rhode Island Attorney General's office from 1999-2001, and Government Relations Counsel for MetLife from 2001-2009. The Republican lost twice as a candidate for governor.
He is a graduate of Rhode Island College and Suffolk Law.