The Hon. Daniel C. Crane (Ret.) served as an associate justice for the Newton District Court in Massachusetts. Crane was appointed to the bench by former Governor Deval Patrick in 2012, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Thomas M. Brennan. He retired in 2020.
Over the course of his judicial career, Crane held assignments in the Newton District Court and the Lowell District Court. He also sat on the Appellate Division of the Massachusetts District Court.
Crane earned a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard College in 1972. He then completed a J.D. at Boston College Law School in 1975.
After graduating from law school, Crane entered into private practice as a partner at Finn & Crane in Cambridge. He worked in that capacity for twenty-four years, eventually leaving to become Chief Bar Counsel to the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.
Then, in 2007, Crane was named Undersecretary for Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. He held this position for two years before returning to private practice as a sole practitioner. During the remainder of his legal career, Crane advised attorneys and law firms on practice management, professional responsibility issues, and ethics matters.
His memberships have included the Massachusetts Bar Association (president), the Massachusetts Bar Foundation (president), and the Real Estate Bar Association. He also sat on the Board of Directors of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers as well as the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct.
Crane was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He continues to reside there, where he has served on the Cambridge Retirement Board, the Cambridge Family YMCA Board of Directors, and the Cambridge Savings Bank and Mutual Holding Company Board of Directors. He is also a beekeeper.