NH Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Linda S. Dalianis to Deliver Commencement Address

New Hampshire Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Linda S. Dalianis will address the graduating class at commencement exercises to be held on Saturday morning, May 17, beginning at 10:30 AM.

Professor Albert “Buzz” Scherr has been selected by the students to deliver the faculty address, Erik Moskowitz of Blue Point, NY and Arshdeep Sidhu of Chandigarh, India, have been selected by their classmates as student speakers. Christine Boisvert of Bedford, NH was chosen to receive the staff recognition award for outstanding service to students.

Linda Stewart Dalianis is the first woman to hold a seat on the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the state’s highest court. Prior to her nomination to the Supreme Court in the year 2000, Justice Dalianis served for almost 20 years on the Superior Court bench both as an Associate Justice and as Chief Justice, and was the first woman to serve on that court.  She is now the Senior Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.

During her long career in the judicial branch, Justice Dalianis has been a member of numerous influential committees that shape the day-to-day work of the courts, including the Supreme Court Rules and Legislation Committees, and the Superior Court committees on guardians ad litem, marital masters and alternative dispute resolution. Justice Dalianis served as chair of the New Hampshire Interbranch Criminal and Juvenile Justice Council and is a longtime member of the New Hampshire Bar Association Committee on Cooperation with the Courts.

Justice Dalianis was chair of  the "Family Division Implementation Committee" in 2004 which was appointed by Chief Justice John T. Broderick Jr. to develop a plan for statewide expansion of the Family Division, the most significant change in the court system structure in 20 years.  In 2005, she was appointed by the Chief Justice to lead the “Judicial Branch Dispute Resolution Committee,” which  worked on development of  a system wide program for alternative dispute resolution services, now under the direction of a new Judicial Branch  “Office of Mediation and Arbitration.”

Justice Dalianis initiated the effort to establish the Daniel Webster Scholar Program at Pierce Law Center in which students are prepared for admission to the bar based upon rigorous evaluation of their practical legal skills as well as substantive knowledge of the law. The first group of Webster scholars are members of the 2008 graduating class.

She was an incorporator of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, a non-profit organization designed to help meet state and community needs. Justice Dalianis also was an original director and officer of the Girls Club of Nashua, N.H. where she has lived for 30 years. She has been a director of the Greater Nashua YWCA and a member and officer of the Nashua Business and Professional Women’s clubs.