BOSTON (SHNS) – An attorney with nearly three decades of experience and an interest in fastpitch softball for young women is Gov. Charlie Baker’s latest nominee for a judgeship.
Baker last week tapped James Manitsas, a Springfield-based lawyer, as associate justice of the Superior Court, and the Governor’s Council plans to hold a confirmation hearing on the new nominee on Wednesday. Since 2004, Manitsas has been a partner at Murphy & Manitsas LLC in Springfield with an emphasis on insurance defense.
A UMass Amherst and Quinnipiac University School of Law graduate, Manitsas launched his career in 1992 with a private practice focusing on landlord tenant matters. He joined the office of Lawrence McAuliffe two years later as an associate attorney, where he worked as staff counsel for Sentry Insurance Company. From 1997 to 2004, Manitsas worked as a litigation and personal injury attorney in the office of Mark Salomone in Holyoke.
Baker’s office said Manitsas also volunteers with the Western Mass Intensity Softball travel tournament that he helped launch. It was not immediately clear in which of the state’s 20 Superior Court courthouses Manitsas would serve if he is confirmed by the council, an eight-member elected body that vets judicial nominees, or who he would succeed among the roster of 82 Superior Court justices
