Exonian Profiles
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“In 27 years on the bench, you get everything,” Herbert P. Wilkins ’47 says of his career as a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. “I covered everything from opinions on wills and trusts to first degree murder, from constitutional rights to administrative and municipal law.” In 1996, Wilkins was appointed Chief Justice of the court, a position he held until his retirement this past fall. He is now a visiting professor at Boston College Law School, where he says he “is trying to teach” insurance law and local government law. “Teaching is very different from judging, where you spend most of your time listening,” he comments. “It’s a reversal of roles. Now I spend most of my time talking.” Wilkins’ father was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court when Wilkins was a student at Exeter. He recalls, “My brother, Raymond S. Wilkins Jr. ’43, announced he was not going to be a lawyer, but I gravitated toward the law and never regretted it.” After what he describes as “a modest academic career” at Harvard, Wilkins went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1954 and served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He became an associate with Palmer and Dodge in Boston and was made a partner in the firm in 1960, where he remained until 1972, when Governor Frank Sargent appointed him to the commonwealth’s highest court as associate justice. Wilkins became known on the court for his defense of individual rights and his attention to the state constitution as a source of rights not identified by the U.S. Supreme Court. He wrote an opinion barring the random testing of police officers for drugs, a position rejected by the Supreme Court in Washington. In the 4-3 decision, he stated: “It is at times when pressure on constitutional rights are greatest that courts must be especially vigilant in the protection of those rights.” In 1999, Wilkins received the Herbert Harley Award from the American Judicature Society, which is given to individuals who make outstanding contributions that substantially improve the administration of justice in their states. He has served as a trustee at Exeter and Milton and a six-year term on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the last two years as president. He and his wife, Angela, have been married for 47 years and have four children and nine grandchildren; their son, Douglas H. Wilkins, graduated from Exeter in 1971. Of the changes he has seen in the practice of law during his career, Wilkins says, “The biggest change is the increased involvement of women in the law and the increased involvement of minorities. Cases have become more complicated as society has become more complicated. The discovery of DNA, for instance, has opened up complex issues.” —Katherine Towler |
