Paul Suttell

Paul Suttell (born January 10, 1949) is the chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Suttell graduated from the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. He then attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, from which he graduated in 1971. He received his J.D. degree from Suffolk University Law School in 1976. He began his legal career in Pawtucket with the firm of Crowe, Chester & Adams, and then as an associate with Beals & DiFiore in Providence from 1978 to 1990. He served as legal counsel to the House Minority Leader in the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1979 to 1982. Suttell served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives between 1982 and 1990 as a member of the Republican Party, representing a district that encompassed Little Compton and portions of Tiverton and Portsmouth. In his second term, he was elected by his colleagues as Deputy Minority Leader and served in that capacity until 1990. During his tenure in the Rhode Island General Assembly, he served on the House Committees on the Judiciary, Corporations, and Special Legislation, the Joint Committees on the Environment and the Arts, and the Agricultural Land Preservation Commission, the Newport County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Lottery Commission. In 1988, he was elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.