“The most important job a governor does is to choose Vermont’s judges, because they last a lot longer than we do,” Shumlin said in his ceremonial office at the Statehouse. “And as I get the privilege of appointing yet two more extraordinary justices to the bench — less than a week before I retire from this particular job — the proof is in the pudding.”
Fenster has served as Addison County state’s attorney since 2009 and currently chairs the executive committee of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. A graduate of the University of Vermont and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, Fenster has also been in private practice in Bennington at Barr Sternberg Moss Lawrence Silver Saltonstall & Fenster, where he focused on criminal defense, domestic relations and civil litigation.
Mann is a partner at Tepper, Dardeck, Levins and Mann. She has practiced for more than 25 years in Vermont criminal, civil and family law. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Vermont Law School, Mann served as a federal public defender from 1999 to 2010.
She said her family members “have always put up with a lot” for her work. “They have allowed my work to impinge on our evenings at home, on our weekends, never complained when those clients called on vacations, no matter where we are in the country,” she said at her swearing-in.
Fenster also thanked his family for their support throughout his legal career.
Shumlin said he chose Mann and Fenster for their understanding of the legal system and Vermont values. Mann is filling a vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Kathleen Manley. Fenster is filling a new position.
The governor remarked on the large number of vacancies that have occurred during his six years in office and said he has appointed 44 percent of the judges now serving in Vermont courthouses.
He added that he looks for judges who show compassion toward defendants and are “less inclined to just lock them up and more inclined to get them back into society.”
