The Honorable John Cratsley (retired) served on the Massachusetts Superior Court for 24 years, serving as Chair of the Superior Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution. From 1999 to 2004, he served as Chair of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. Since his retirement in 2011, he has served as a full-time arbitrator and mediator at JAMS. He focuses his practice on a wide variety of matters, including contract, construction, employment, and insurance disputes. He recently served as a part-time Special Judicial Magistrate, appointed by the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, hearing matters arising from the Drug Lab Litigation. He has served as a Lecturer of Law at Harvard Law School since 1972 and as Adjunct Faculty at Boston College Law School since 1994.
Judge Cratsley received his L.L.M. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1968 and his J.D. from University of Chicago Law School in 1966. He received his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College. Following law school, he worked as an attorney at the Community Legal Assistance Office (now Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services), as a member of the Massachusetts Parole Board, and as a Justice of the Roxbury Division of the District Court Department.
As an Access to Justice Fellow, Judge Cratsley will be working with Veterans Legal Services to expand upon his volunteer work at the Bedford VA Medical Center, where he has independently been providing information and counseling to veterans to remove barriers to housing and employment. Veterans Legal Services and Judge Cratsley will join together to offer increased civil legal support in additional practice areas, with the goal of meeting the veterans’ unmet needs. Judge Cratsley’s fellowship will help Veterans Legal Services add its fourth on-site legal clinic in Greater Boston.