Frank G. Mahady

Frank G. Mahady (March 31, 1939 – August 18, 1992) was a Vermont attorney and judge. He was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court in 1987, but never confirmed by the Senate; he withdrew his confirmation request on April 3, 1988. Early life Frank Gordon "Skip" Mahady was born in Taunton, Massachusetts on March 31, 1939, the son of Frank D. and Doris (Potter) Mahady. He was raised in Hartford, Vermont, and graduated from Hartford High School in 1957. As a boy, Mahady crushed a hand between two train cars while playing in the railroad yards of White River Junction. As a teenager, he lost an eye to an accident with a BB gun. He received his bachelor's degree (with honors) from Dartmouth College in 1961, and his law degree (second in his class) from Georgetown University Law Center in 1964; Patrick Leahy was one of Mahady's law school classmates. Start of career Mahady was admitted to the bar in 1964, and practiced law until 1967. A liberal Republican, he was recognized as a protege of Lieutenant Governor and Vermont Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Hayes and Vermont Attorney General and federal Judge James L. Oakes. Mahady served as an Assistant Attorney General from 1967 to 1968, and Deputy Attorney General from 1968 to 1969, when Oakes served as Attorney General. In 1967, Mahady was the Vermont coordinator for the George W. Romney presidential campaign; he resigned after joining the Vermont Attorney General's office in order to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest. From 1969 to 1972, Mahady served as Windsor County's State's Attorney, and he was a delegate to the 1972 Republican National Convention. He then resumed the practice of law, and continued until he was appointed to the bench in 1982. While in private practice, Mahady was contracted to serve as Windsor County's public defender in 1972 and 1973. In 1977, testimony at a trial indicated that Mahady had accepted a $5,000 fee from a client in 1973 to work on a private case while he was supposed to work only on cases in his role as a public defender. He argued that he had received oral permission from Vermont's Defender General, and was cleared of wrongdoing by Vermont's Professional Conduct Board. In 1978, a Vermont Superior Court judge ruled in a civil trial that Mahady had broken the law by accepting the payment, and fined him one dollar, but denied the state attorney general's request to have Mahady forfeit the money.