Tenure on Massachusetts’ Highest Court Plummets to All-Time Low

Justices on Massachusetts’ highest court are averaging the shortest terms they’ve served in decades, making it more difficult for attorneys to predict the court’s leanings and signaling an emerging trend in how judgeships fit into an attorney’s larger career.

Judges appointed since 2010 have spent an average of just six years on the Supreme Judicial Court, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis. Tenure has dropped consistently since Massachusetts set a mandatory judicial retirement age of 70 in 1972, when it was common for judges to serve nearly two decades.

“The rapidity of the turnover inherently results in less predictability and ...