Northeastern Voice

Alumnus named to Mass. Ethics Commission

Patrick King

Northeastern alumnus Patrick King, a former Massachusetts Superior Court judge, was appointed to the Massachusetts Ethics Commission by Secretary of State William Galvin.

King, a 1964 cum laude graduate in political science, credited the faculty and department for moving him to pursue a life in the law that included 26 years as a trial judge.

“I really had some great professors at Northeastern,” King said. “They inspired me to make a career in the field, and provided me with some good counseling.”

A native of South Boston, King has devoted his career to handling a wide range of cases, from complex business disputes to medical malpractice, according to his biography.

He was an associate justice in the Superior Court from 1998 to 2003, and before that served as an associate justice in the Housing Court from 1977 to 1989.

Currently, he is a full-time lawyer with Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, a position he has held since 2003.

At JAMS, he handles cases contained within the fields of commercial/business, construction, employment, insurance coverage, negligence and real estate. Within these areas, he has handled a wide range of issues related to accounting, banking and engineering to wrongful termination, age and sex discrimination and race discrimination within the employment sector.

In his new position on the Ethics Commission, King will serve with four other commissioners to enforce conflict of interest and financial disclosure laws related to state officials and employees, he said. He is set to serve a five-year term, beginning with his first meeting later this month.