Sandra Lynch

Sandra Lea Lynch (born July 31, 1946) is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She is the first woman to serve on that court. Lynch served as chief judge of the First Circuit from 2008 to 2015. Early life and education Lynch was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College in 1968, and a Juris Doctor from the Boston University School of Law in 1971. She was an editor of the Boston University Law Review. Professional career From 1971 to 1973, Lynch served as a law clerk for Judge Raymond James Pettine of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. At the time, a woman law clerk was so unusual that Lynch was profiled in a Boston Evening Globe article. She then went on to serve as an assistant state attorney general for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1973 to 1974 and general counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Education from 1974 to 1978. Lynch was in private practice from 1978 until being appointed to the First Circuit. Lynch was a partner at the law firm of Foley, Hoag, & Eliot at their Boston office, and the first woman to lead the firm's litigation department. At Foley, Hoag, Lynch was part of the team that represented W.R. Grace in the connection with a groundwater contamination lawsuit later profiled in the work A Civil Action. Lynch was also involved in the Boston school desegregation litigation.