Hon. Paula M. Carey is Chief Justice of the Trial Court in Massachusetts. She was appointed to the position in 2013. She filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Robert A. Mulligan (Ret.).
As such, Carey is tasked with serving as manager and administrator of seven Trial Court departments including the Boston Municipal Court, District Court, Housing Court, Juvenile Court, Land Court, Probate and Family Court, and Superior Court as well as supervising the Office of the Commissioner of Probation and the Office of the Jury Commissioner
Carey came to the position after serving as Chief Justice of the Probate and Family Court since 2007. She first joined the judiciary in 2001 as a circuit judge with the Probate and Family Court and was quickly appointed associate justice of the Norfolk County Probate and Family Court by former Governor Paul Cellucci later that same year. During her tenure as associate justice, Carey helped develop and implement the Uniform Probate Code responsible for reforming guardianships and probate procedures.
She received a bachelor’s degree in history and education from Westfield State College. Carey went on to complete a J.D. from New England School of Law in 1986.
Prior to joining the judiciary, she handled domestic relations matters as a founding partner at Carey & Mooney, P.C.
Carey has served as a lecturer and contributor on the subject of domestic relations for MCLE, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, and Suffolk University Advanced Legal Studies.
Her memberships included the Massachusetts Bar Association (Family Law Section Council), the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Family and Probate American Inn of Court, and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.
Carey received the Probate and Family Court Judicial Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Judges Conference (2004), the Daniel J. Toomey Excellence in the Judiciary Award (2006), the Distinguished Jurist Award from the Massachusetts Women Lawyers (2009), the Citation of Judicial Excellence from the Boston Bar Association (2011), the Haskell Freedman Award from the Massachusetts Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (2011), the Distinguished Jurist Award from the Middlesex County Bar Association (2011), and the Haskell Cohn Award for Distinguished Judicial Service (2013).
Carey is a longtime resident of Burlington, where she resides with her spouse, Cindy.