Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Spring 2017, Volume 43, No. 1 | Page 37

Interview with Justice John A. Dooley, III
Teri Corsones: Today is February 13 th ,
2017, and I’m meeting with Vermont Su-
preme Court Justice John Dooley in the
Vermont Supreme Court Building in Mont-
pelier. Justice Dooley, on behalf of Vermont
Bar Journal readers everywhere, thank you
for taking the time to meet with me today.
JD: Entirely my pleasure.
TC: Thank you. It’s my understanding
that you’re now the 3 rd longest serving Ver-
mont Supreme Court Justice in history?
JD: Well, historians greater than I am,
spent time looking at it and that’s what I’ve
read. As far as I know, I have no reason to
question that.
TC: Did you imagine, on June 12, 1987,
when you were first appointed to the
bench, that you would serve for that length
of time?
JD: No, but when you take a job like this,
it’s hard to imagine anything in particular,
so I guess that it was a possibility.
TC: Given your unique position in Ver-
mont history, I’d love to get your perspec-
tive on different matters affecting the bar.
But first, can you tell us a little bit about
your background; where you grew up, went
to school and how you first became inter-
ested in the law?
JD: I grew up in Nashua, New Hampshire,
and spent some of my growing-up time in
Massachusetts. I then went to Union Col-
lege; my major was in electrical engineer-
ing. As I started confronting what I wanted
to do when I grew up, I decided that be-
ing an engineer wasn’t particularly what I
wanted to be, so I decided I would go to
law school. I went to Boston College Law
School, right from my electrical engineering
degree. I got a job as a law clerk to Federal
Judge Bernard Leddy after law school, and
I came to Vermont and never left.
and I guess I filled that bill.
TC: Do you recall any memorable cases
during the time that you clerked with Judge
Leddy?
JD: I recall numerous cases during that
time. You have to go back to that time to
understand what the federal court was like
then, because it was very different than it is
now. At the time that I clerked in the fed-
eral court, we had many more personal in-
jury actions than for example, the Southern
District of New York.
TC: Judge Leddy was your connection
to Vermont?
JD: Yes, well I’m from New Hampshire,
so I wasn’t far away. I had been here for
sports and various kinds of activities in Ver-
mont. Actually, it was a choice between be-
ing a law clerk in the New Hampshire Su-
preme Court and being a law clerk here,
and I decided to come here . TC: Really?
JD: We were known in the federal court
as the plaintiff’s court, particularly because
of Judge Gibson, who was the Chief Judge
at that time. I saw a tremendous number of
jury trials, with some of the very best jury
trial lawyers in the state. I sat in some of
Judge Gibson’s trials, from which I still tell
stories, as you may have heard. I also saw
some very interesting cases with Judge
Leddy.
TC: So your clerkship with Judge Led-
dy must have been shortly after he was ap-
pointed in 1966?
JD: Yes, I graduated from law school
in 1968 and he was a Boston College Law
School graduate. He particularly wanted to
hire clerks from Boston College Law School, TC: Did you ever imagine that Judge
Leddy’s grandson, TJ, would become Ver-
mont Attorney General some day?
JD: No, but Judge Leddy had very tal-
ented children in politics, so it’s not a com-
plete surprise. I’m sure that he would be
very proud of his grandson.
www.vtbar.org
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SPRING 2017
TC: What did you do after your clerk-
ship?
JD: I went to Vermont Legal Aid, where
I was the Deputy Director. There had been
a Bar Association Legal Aid Committee in
Chittenden County, and when Vermont Le-
gal Aid came along and got staffed, the
Committee gave us its cases. I ended up in
the first six months, I think, trying two jury
trials in federal court, both presided over by
Judge Leddy. So I was back in federal court
very, very quickly.
TC: That was just after Vermont Legal
Aid began in 1968?
JD: Yes, just after. Although jury trial
work is not the normal work of Vermont
Legal Aid, as you probably know. It hap-
pened that there were two cases involving
indigent defendants with cases in federal
court for various reasons. That was pretty
much my career as a jury trial lawyer, and
I didn’t really try a lot since. I tried a lot of
court cases, and many appeals in the Ver-
mont Supreme Court.
TC: You then went from Deputy Director
to Director of Vermont Legal Aid?
JD: That’s right, after a couple of years.
TC: How long were you at Vermont Le-
gal Aid?
JD: About eight years, maybe six as Di-
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