McKee names six to coveted lifetime court seats. Here are the names.

PROVIDENCE – Gov. Dan McKee on Friday announced six judicial nominations to fill coveted lifetime spots on the Superior, District and Workers’ Compensation Courts.

“It is an honor to appoint these six judges who will play a critical role in serving Rhode Island’s court system,” McKee said in a news release. “I know that with their combined decades of experience, they will fairly uphold the laws and values of Rhode Island. I thank the Judicial Nominating Committee for sending us a strong selection of qualified candidates.”

McKee elevated District Court Judge Christopher K. Smith to the Superior Court bench.

Before being named a District Court judge in 2018 by then-Gov. Gina Raimondo, Smith represented indigent clients with the Rhode Island Public Defender’s office and served as chief of the office’s District Court division. He will fill the seat left vacant by Judge Susan E. McGuirl.

Smith earned a law degree from Roger Williams University School of Law as well as an advanced degree focusing on environmental and natural resources law from the University of Oregon School of Law, according to a Roger Williams law piece highlighting his nomination by Raimondo for its diversity.

According to McKee’s office, Smith also serves as an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University, sits on the board of directors of Crossroads Rhode Island and is a member of the Engeye Scholars Advisory Board, a program that supports educational attainment to promising children in Ddegeya, Uganda. Smith lives with his wife and two children.

Also named to the state’s trial court is Assistant Attorney General Joseph J. McBurney, who will fill the opening created by Judge Netti C. Vogel's retirement. 

McBurney, of Pawtucket, is a longtime prosecutor at the state attorney general’s office, where he handles some of the state’s highest-profile cases involving guns and violence.

He is a graduate of University of Connecticut School of Law and The Catholic University of America. He also is an instructor at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy, Rhode Island State Police Training Academy and the Providence Police Training Academy.

The lifetime Superior Court seat comes with a base salary of $170,545.

McKee nominated District Court Magistrate James Patrick O’Neill to fill the District Court seat vacated by Judge Elaine Bucci. O’Neill is a former House Majority Whip who spent 10 years in the state House of Representatives before being named magistrate in 2017

He earned a law degree at  Roger Williams University School of Law and now lives in Narragansett with his wife and two daughters.

Clerk of Rhode Island Supreme Court Debra Saunders has been nominated to fill a new seat in the District Court.  The position was created by the passage of law authorizing an additional judgeship to accommodate a new mental-health treatment calendar.

According to the governor’s office, Saunders has served as Clerk of the Rhode Island Supreme Court since 2008 and brings more than 25 years of legal experience to the bench. Throughout her career, she has served as Supreme Court deputy general counsel and a special assistant attorney general, and has worked in private practice. She is a longstanding member of various Supreme Court committees, including the Committee on Character and Fitness and the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee. She is a member of the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

A graduate of Suffolk University Law School and Providence College, Saunders and her husband split their time between Barrington and Newport. They own The Daily Scoop ice cream shops.

Also nominated as District Court judge to fill the seat vacated by Judge Christine Jabour is Nicholas J. Parrillo, a former state public defender who now practices with Marin and Barrett.

The son of Superior Court Presiding Justice Alice B. Gibney,  Parillo is a graduate of Rhode Island College and Roger Williams University School of Law.

After law school, Parrillo served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Suttell.

Parrillo is an elected committee member to the Rhode Island Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and a member on the Justinian Law Society of Rhode Island, according to McKee's office. He lives in East Providence with his wife, son and dog.

The District Court seats are lifetime tenure with a $165,158 annual base salary.

McKee nominated Moira E. Reynolds to the Workers’ Compensation Court. Reynolds has worked as staff counsel to The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. for more than two decades and will fill the seat vacated by Judge George Salem.

Reynolds is a graduate of Providence College and Suffolk University Law School. She lives in North Kingstown with her husband and two children.

The lifetime position earns an annual base salary of $165,158.

The nominees will now go before the state Senate for approval.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New RI judges named to lifetime court seats.