The Hon. Antoinette E. Leoney is a circuit justice for the Massachusetts District Court. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor Deval Patrick on August 4, 2010.
Leoney earned a bachelor’s degree from Lesley College in 1980. She then completed a J.D. at New England Law in 1984.
After graduating from law school, Leoney began her legal career as assistant divisional counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. She served in that capacity until 1986, at which time she became an assistant attorney general in the Public Protection Bureau of the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s Office.
In 1990, Leoney left her post and joined the Office of Government Regulation & Compliance at Brandeis University. She spent the next year as its director, eventually leaving to become Senior Litigation Associate at McKenzie & Edwards. Then, in 1994, she settled into the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. As an Assistant United States Attorney, Leoney held assignments in the Major Crimes Unit, the Anti-Terrorism Unit, and the Asset Forfeiture Unit (Chief).
Her memberships have included the National Association of Women Judges, the Massachusetts Black Judges Conference, and the Massachusetts Judges Conference. She also sat on the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Gender Equality Advisory Board as well as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Commission to Study Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts.
Leoney was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was a resident of Cambridge at the time of her appointment.