Mary-Lou Rup

Mary-Lou Rup

Senior Counsel

Justice Rup worked as a District Court prosecutor in the Hampshire and Franklin County District Courts from 1979 through 1980. From 1980 through 1983, she served as a staff attorney with the Berkshire County office of the Massachusetts Defenders Committee and later, from 1983 through 1990, in the Hampden County office of the Massachusetts Defenders Committee, later re-named the Committee for Public Counsel Services. She served as the Hampden County regional supervisor from 1986 through 1990. In 1990, she joined a private firm where her legal practice consisted primarily of civil and criminal litigation.

In November 1992, she became an associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court where she served until retirement in 2018. During her tenure, she served on the Superior Court’s Civil, Criminal and Education Committees, and as chair of the Law Clerks Committee.

As a lawyer and as a judge, Justice Rup has served as a faculty member on numerous continuing legal education and training programs and as a guest lecturer in high school, college and law school classes. She has co-authored chapters on trial jury selection in Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education publications. For nearly a decade, she traveled to Tomsk and Rostov as a participant in education exchange programs with Russian legal professionals studying the United States’ legal system with an eye to legal and judicial reforms in their country. She also regularly participates in programs for university students and young professionals from other countries, most recently from Latin America, Israel and Jordan.


Bar Admissions
  • Massachusetts
  • Federal District Court
  • Massachusetts District Court
  • United States Supreme Court
Education
  • University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.A.
  • Western New England University School of Law, J.D.
Honors

The Western New England Law Alumni Association and Dean Zelda Harris honored The Honorable Mary-Lou Rup, Class of 1978, with the Distinguished Alumni Award (2023).

Affiliations

Justice Rup is a member of the Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin Bar Associations. A member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, she served as chairperson of its Criminal Justice Section Council from 1992 through 1993. She also served as a trustee of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, belongs to the National Woman Judges Association and serves on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Judges Conference.