George Augustine O'Toole Jr. (born October 7, 1947) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose Jurisdiction (area), territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth (U.S. state), C ...

Education and career

Born in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, O'Toole received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

in 1969 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1972. He was in private practice in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

from 1972 to 1982. He was an associate justice of the

Boston Municipal Court The Boston Municipal Court (BMC), officially the Boston Municipal Court Department of the Trial Court, is a department of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The court hears criminal, civil, mental health, restr ...

from 1982 to 1990, and of the Superior Court of Massachusetts from 1990 to 1995.

Federal judicial service

On April 4, 1995, O'Toole was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to a new seat on the

created by 104 Stat. 5089 following the appointment of

Rya W. Zobel Rya Weickert Zobel (born December 18, 1931) is a United States federal judge, Senior United States District Court Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Education and career Born in Zwickau, Weimar Republic, ...

as director of the

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of re ...

. He was confirmed by the

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

on May 25, 1995, and received his commission on May 26, 1995. He assumed senior status on January 1, 2018.

Notable decision

O'Toole presided over the 2015 trial of

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Dzhokhar Anzorovich "Jahar" Tsarnaev (born July 22, 1993) is an American domestic terrorist of Chechen and Avar descent who, along with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Ma ...

, one of the perpetrators of the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing, sometimes referred to as simply the Boston bombing, was an Islamist domestic terrorist attack that took place during the 117th annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarna ...

. On February 6, 2025, O'Toole temporarily blocked the U.S. federal deferred resignation program. On February 12, 2025, he allowed the reauthorization of the program.

Personal life

He is married to Lucy A. Flynn, a local banker, businesswoman,
JD Journal, December 26, 2014. and community activist. They have two sons, George and John.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otoole, George A. Jr. 1947 births Living people Boston College alumni Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Judges of the Boston Municipal Court Massachusetts Superior Court justices Lawyers from Worcester, Massachusetts United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton 20th-century Massachusetts state court judges 21st-century American judges