AFTER 28 YEARS on the bench, Claremont District Court Judge Albert D. Leahy Jr. retired Jan. 12.

Leahy, 67, stepped down within three years of mandatory retirement to spend more time with his family, playing golf, travelling and doing more community work in his native Claremont, where he was born and has lived all his life. He decided to retire now "while I'm still in relatively good shape," Leahy said.

In an interview with Bar News, Leahy shared his views on judicial tenure, effects of the Fairbanks scandal on the judiciary and changes in NH's district courts.

Leahy graduated from Stevens High School in 1951, Yale in 1955 and Harvard Law School in 1961, the same year he was admitted to the NH Bar. Law ran in his family: His father, Albert D. Leahy-who Leahy replaced on the Claremont District Court bench-and his uncle John H. Leahy-an eventual chief justice of the Superior Court-started practicing law in Claremont in 1931 in the firm that evolved into Leahy & Denault. Leahy joined his father's firm and practiced law while serving as a part-time district court judge; he has been of counsel with the firm for the past year or so. Leahy's brother and sister-in-law are also attorneys practicing with Orr & Reno.

Leahy was appointed by Gov. John King to replace his father on the Claremont District Court bench after the elder Leahy stepped down in 1972. The court then was "not much different than the old-time municipal court-we had relatively primitive methods of doing just about everything," Leahy said.

"The administration, the court facilities were light years from what we have now. The district court is, by far, the most changed and improved of the NH courts-and I say that as a partisan," he said.

According to Leahy, initiatives in the '80s like court consolidation and creating a different structure for administration of the courts, as well as a task force in the late 80s that initiated further changes, helped to advance NH's district court system. In the last few years, pilot programs for district court jury trials and for a family division experimented with further revamping the state's district courts.

Leahy praised the NH Supreme Court for its support in these efforts. "We have been treated extremely well by the Supreme Court in terms of the latitude given to make the district court what it is today," he said.

What it is today, Leahy said, is an "excellent court" that handles the "vast majority" of the state's cases. "Granted the cases are less serious than those in the Superior Court, but the volume of cases is much higher," said Leahy.

"It's quite a sophisticated operation," he added.

In reflecting on his career as a judge, Leahy said that his most memorable cases are those that he can't discuss: juvenile cases that aren't matters of public record. "In general, those are the most satisfying and most disappointing," said Leahy.

"You have great and memorable successes when you bail out kids you never expected to, or failures that you never expected," he said.

A case Leahy heard in which a woman failed to stop for a police cruiser because she said she didn't feel safe pulling over while alone in her car at night achieved much "misplaced" notoriety, Leahy said. It became portrayed as a women's issue and stirred up much discussion. Leahy found the woman guilty-he felt that the fact that she also ran a police blockade during the incident didn't corroborate her story about being afraid. A jury later found the woman not guilty.

"I was disappointed, not because of the outcome of the case, but because the discussion missed the point," Leahy said. What became a women's issue was a case more about public safety, Leahy believes, and raised the question of who should be allowed to have emergency lights on a vehicle. (The incident occurred around the time a police impostor with blue lights on his car was accosting women in the area.)

In Leahy's opinion, the infamous Judge John Fairbanks scandal in 1989-in which the 30-year veteran of the Newport District Court bench was indicted for stealing nearly $2 million from elderly clients and was accused of other acts of gross misconduct-definitely impacted the job of being a judge in New Hampshire. "It provided those who used to think ill of judges and lawyers with a lot of ammunition," said Leahy.

He believes that the scandal resulted in some "concessions to appease those who are anti-judiciary," which he says were perhaps too reactionary and should now be re-examined. For example, under present disclosure rules that came about after the Fairbanks matter, "it is too easy for frivolous charges to hang over someone before there's a determination of how serious and credible those charges are," said Leahy.

"It's a structure that invites complaints: The staff, the machinery and the method are in place, and that's good. But when you invite criticism, there should be a corresponding duty to protect people from unfounded or highly questionable charges," he said.

In light of recent problems in the Supreme Court, Leahy doesn't believe these matters will be addressed in the immediate future-but he encourages a close look as soon as possible.

Despite recent talk of taking away lifetime tenure of judges, Leahy feels that judicial appointments should continue to be long-term. At the same time, he favors regular judicial review "by people who understand what a judge's function is-not just lawyers."

He said that the district court system's Member Advisory Committee used to conduct an active review of its judges, which Leahy said was "helpful to the judges." That project has been put on the back burner because of the many changes the court has undergone in recent years, he said.

Leahy said his native Claremont has received negative press for the school funding case it brought against the state and the funding crisis that NH now faces because of Claremont II, but he stands behind the town's actions.

"I think we did something good. The town had trouble with the tax structure and with giving kids an appropriate education, and the Supreme Court agreed with us that the present funding is outdated and unconstitutional and that it's time for a change," said Leahy.

"Claremont hasn't been given credit for that appropriate action," he said.

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