Colin A. Young
State House News Service

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced four new judicial nominees Wednesday, including tapping the chief lawyer from the organization run by Healey's romantic partner Joanna Lydgate to be a state Superior Court judge.

Healey nominated Gillian Feiner as an associate justice of the Superior Court, and nominated Alessandra Petruccelli, Mark Lee, and Elena Tsizer as associate justices on the Probate and Family Court.

The nominations are Healey's 17th, 18th, and 19th for the Probate and Family Court, and her 19th to the Superior Court, her office said.

"All four of these attorneys will bring decades of experience to the Courts and are dedicated to upholding the law. I know they will strengthen our bench and help our residents navigate the legal system," Healey said in a written statement. "I am thankful to the Governor’s Council for working with us on confirming over ninety high-quality judges since I took office."

Feiner has been senior counsel at the States United Democracy Center since 2023. Lydgate, the governor's romantic partner, co-founded the center and has been its president and chief executive officer since 2020, Healey's office said. Before that, Feiner worked for 15 years as an assistant attorney general in the state attorney general’s office – where Healey and Lydgate also worked – including as chief of the False Claims Division and senior enforcement counsel for the Health Care and Fair Competition Bureau.

Petruccelli has run a solo practice in East Boston for the last 20 years, focused on family and domestic relations law, as well as real estate transactional work. She has tried more than 100 cases in both the Juvenile Court and the Probate and Family Court as lead counsel, the governor's office said. She lives in Lynnfield and holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Suffolk University Law School.

Lee, one of the Probate and Family Court nominees, lives in Oxford. Lee has run a solo practice in Worcester for the last 18 years, focused on "all aspects of family and domestic relations law, including cases involving divorce, custody, child support, removal, division of assets, and the probating of estates," Healey's office said. He has also been appointed as a "special master" by various state courts to resolve accounting disputes and oversee real estate sales. Lee is an alumnus of Stonehill College and New England School of Law.

Tsizer owns a solo practice in Framingham focused on domestic relations and family law, probate law, estate planning, and bankruptcy. She has "significant experience representing clients in cases involving divorce, custody, child support, and complex asset divisions," the administration said. The Temple University and New England Law alumna began her legal career as a law clerk in the Bristol, Middlesex, Suffolk and Worcester divisions of the Probate and Family Court.

The Governor's Council on Wednesday, October 8 scheduled its confirmation hearings for Feiner and Petruccelli for Wednesday, October 29 at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., respectively. Lee's hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, November 5 at 11 a.m.; and a date for Tsizer's hearing will be determined by the end of this week.

Also Wednesday, the judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts announced that they selected Christopher Morgan to be a magistrate judge, subject to a required background investigation. He is expected to fill the role in the federal court in Springfield upon the retirement of Judge Katherine Robertson on January 7, 2026.

Morgan started out as an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Boston in 2006 before transferring to the firm’s Washington D.C. office. From 2015 through 2018, he was a trial attorney for the Federal Communications Commission and an adjunct professor at George Washington School of Law. Morgan joined the Springfield office of the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts in 2018 and in 2024 was named senior litigation counsel.