Charles Gywnne Douglas III (born December 2, 1942) is an American politician, jurist, and trial lawyer. He is a former

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and a former

New Hampshire Supreme Court The New Hampshire Supreme Court is the state supreme court, supreme court of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and sole appellate court of the state. The Supreme Court is seated in the state capital, Concord, New Hampshire, Concord. The Court is ...

associate justice.

Early life

Born in Abington, Montgomery County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, the son of Betsy (née Graham) and Charles Gwynn Douglas, Jr. He graduated from

William Penn Charter School William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an elite private school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to b ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 1960, and attended

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

from 1960 to 1962, He received a B.A. from

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

in 1965 and a J.D. from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

School of Law in 1968 with honors.Supreme Court of New Hampshire,
An Introduction to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire
(August 1977), p. 22.

Career

Douglas was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1968 and commenced practice in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, Hillsborough County,

, from 1970 to 1972. He was legal counsel and legislative counsel to Governor Meldrim Thomson Jr. from 1973 to 1974. He served as associate justice, New Hampshire superior court, from 1974 to 1976, as associate justice, New Hampshire Supreme Court, from 1977 to 1983, and senior justice from 1983 to 1985. Elected as a Republican to the 101st Congress, Douglas served as United States Representative for the state of New Hampshire from (January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1991). He served as a member of the Committee on the Judiciary from January 3, 1989 to October 28, 1990. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1990 to the 102nd Congress. From 2014 through 2017 he was Legal Counsel to the N.H. House of Representatives. In 2024 he served as Legal Counsel to the Nikki Haley for President campaign in New Hampshire. Douglas has served as an Adjunct Faculty member at University of New Hampshire School of Law and at the American Bar Association's Appellate Judge's Seminars. He served as Chairman of the New Hampshire Constitution Bicentennial Education Commission and a member of the Constitutional Convention Study Commission. In addition to publishing over forty articles, Douglas is the author of three books. One, New Hampshire Practice and Procedure: Family Law is the definitive source for New Hampshire Divorce and family law, and is used by New Hampshire divorce and family law attorneys, and is frequently referred to in New Hampshire Supreme Court decisions. He also authored the New Hampshire Evidence Manual. This evidence book is relied upon by New Hampshire lawyers and courts during litigation, and is cited to by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. In 2022 the book C.C.A. Baldi, The King of Little Italy about his great grandfather in Philadelphia was published. , he has been chairman of the Governor's Judicial Selection Commission since 2017. He was chairman of the New Hampshire Judicial Retirement Plan Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2008, and thereafter Executive Director of the Plan. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Hampshire Association for Justice in 2014 and a Distinguished Service to the Profession Award from the New Hampshire Bar Association in 2017. In 2018 he was named the #1 Personal Injury Trial Lawyer in New Hampshire by N.H. Magazine. A retired colonel with the New Hampshire Army National Guard (1968 to 1991), Douglas practices law as the President of Douglas Leonard & Garvey P.C., a plaintiff's law firm in Concord. He is also the publisher of the Bow Times newspaper in Bow, N.H. where he served on the Town Budget Committee.

Personal life

Because of his experience as a New Hampshire Judge and New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice as well as his record of success as a trial lawyer, Douglas is frequently requested to lecture on personal injury and employment law matters. He is a resident of Pembroke, Merrimack County,

, and is married to Debra M. Douglas, Chairman of the State's Lottery Commission. He is the

first cousin A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the lineal kinship, kinship system used in the English-s ...

, once removed, of singer

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

through his grandparents Charles Gwynn Douglas I and Louise Douglas (née Baldi), daughter of Charles Carmine Antonio Baldi. Douglas wrote a book about his great-grandfather's life.

References

External links

Douglas, Leonard & Garvey, P.C.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Charles III 1942 births Living people Boston University School of Law alumni Justices of the New Hampshire Supreme Court Wesleyan University alumni New Hampshire lawyers Politicians from Concord, New Hampshire National Guard (United States) colonels Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire William Penn Charter School alumni New Hampshire National Guard personnel People from Bow, New Hampshire People from Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania Baldi family 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives