ATTORNEYS may SOON see some new faces on the bench of various courts across the state, due to recent retirements, changes in judges' schedules and new appointments.

Also, a new pilot project will affect the judiciary in Merrimack County: The project will give either party in a case the right to challenge the judge assigned to the case. For more information, see an article on page 19. The rules implementing the project are published on page 21.

Among the recent or upcoming personnel changes in the state's judiciary: After serving for 20 years as a marital master, Master Larry B. Pletcher is retiring from the bench July 1. (For more on Pletcher's career and retirement, go to page 19.) Also, Marital Master Martha W. Copithorne will be reducing her schedule to part-time. Because of budget constraints, the court does not have plans to appoint new masters to the roster, according to NH Superior Court Chief Justice Walter L. Murphy.

In the district courts, the Executive Council was scheduled to hold public hearings June 12 on the nominations of Judge Martha R. Crocker as justice of Milford District Court and James H. Leary as special justice of Nashua District Court. Crocker is currently a special justice in Peterborough-Jaffrey District Court. Leary is an attorney with the Nashua law firm Sullivan & Gregg. A confirmation vote on the nominations of Crocker and Leary could take place at the Executive Council's June 26 meeting.

On May 29, Jennifer B. Sobel was nominated as justice of the Haverhill, Littleton and Lancaster District Courts and Lawrence A. MacLeod, Jr. was nominated to a judge ship in the Hanover/Lebanon District Court. Sobel, a former NH public defender and an attorney at the McLane firm, is currently coordinator of career information at Vermont Law School. MacLeod operates his own law firm in Lebanon and is the Grafton County representative on the NHBA Board of Governors. At press time, dates had not yet been set for public hearings or confirmation votes on their nominations.

JudgeBruce A. Cardello, justice of Newport District Court, and JudgeJohn J. Yazinski, justice of Claremont District Court, have been assigned as Family Division judges for Grafton County. They will serve part-time in the Family Division pilot program while continuing their regular judicial duties.

On the federal side, Paul M. Gagnon, who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire from 1993 to 2001, was recently sworn in as an immigration judge in the Hartford Immigration Court, Hartford, Conn. Gagnon joins the ranks of more than 200 immigration judges working in 51 Immigration Courts nationwide. These judges conduct formal administrative proceedings to determine whether foreign-born individuals who are charged with violations of federal immigration law should be removed from the United States or may be granted relief from removal. Immigration judges are also authorized to administer oaths of citizenship to candidates for naturalization.

Gagnon was most recently a research associate with the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College in Hanover. He was previously in private practice in NH and served as assistant Hillsborough County Attorney (1977-79) and as Hillsborough County Attorney (1983-86).

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