Attorney James I. Peale was sworn in Nov. 29 as Clerk of Sullivan County Superior Court during a ceremony in the Newport courthouse attended by friends and co-workers and by Superior Court Justice Jean K. Burling, who is currently assigned to the Sullivan trial court. The oath was administered by Chief Justice Robert J. Lynn of the Superior Court.

Peale, who has been with the court system for 18 years, had served since November 2004 as Deputy Clerk of the Merrimack County Superior Court. In Sullivan County, he succeeds Peter Y. Wolfe. 

A 1977 graduate of Colby College, Peale received his law degree in 1981 from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law in Macon, Georgia. Prior to coming to the Merrimack County Superior Court in 2004, Peale had served for 17 years as deputy clerk in Cheshire County Superior Court in Keene. Previously he was employed by the NH Department of Corrections and the Rockingham County Attorney’s Office.