In a few weeks, Conant High School will host the state’s Supreme Court Chief Justice and a prominent attorney as a part of the 2023 National Judicial Outreach Week. 

CHS juniors and seniors will have a chance to hear from NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon J. MacDonald and Attorney John B. Garvey on Monday, March 6th from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. This event is part of a statewide initiative in which judges and NH Bar Association members will meet at a number of locations throughout the state to discuss the importance of upholding the rule of the law in the USA. 

The first National Judicial Outreach Week took place in 2017 and has been celebrated annually since. The program was developed by the ABA’s Judicial Outreach Network Committee “to encourage judges and lawyers who support a fair and impartial judiciary to engage the community directly.”

MacDonald is the 37th Chief of Justice of the NH Supreme Court, having been sworn in on March 4, 2021. Additionally, he served as the state’s attorney general from April 13, 2017 until March 4, 2021. He also has experience in a private practice and as a litigation partner. He has been awarded the Distinguished Service to the Public Award in 2014 from the New Hampshire Bar Association and the John E. Tobin, Jr. Justice Award from the New Hampshire Campaign Legal Services in 2017.

Garvey is the founding director of the nationally acclaimed Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program and a professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law. In addition to his experience as a professor, Garvey has over 40 years of experience as an attorney. He devoted his time to a wide range of litigation matters, including being one of the original principal attorneys in the Claremont case, an important legal case that challenged the constitutionality of how the state funds education. As a result of his work on this case, Garvey was a recipient of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union “Bill of Rights Award.”