He graduated from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1966, from Columbia Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1969, from Harvard Law School with an Master of Laws in 1975, and from Northeastern University"s Law, Policy, and Society Program with a Doctor of Philosophy.
He was nominated for Chief Justice by Governor Deval Patrick on November 4, 2010, and sworn in on December 20.He has announced his retirement effective July 25, 2014. Chief Justice Ireland is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts. in 1998. In 1971, he became one of the first staff attorneys on the Roxbury Defenders Committee, a nonprofit established to provide legal services to impoverished citizens of Roxbury, Boston.
In 1977, he was nominated to the Boston Juvenile Court, and in 1990, to the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.
He was appointed to both courts by Governor Michael Dukakis. In 1997, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court by Governor William Weld.
He is the first African-American associate justice and also the first African-American chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He resigned from the high court in 2014, and was replaced by Associate Justice Ralph Gants.
Chief Justice Ireland has served on the faculty of both Northeastern University School of Law and Northeastern University"s College of Criminal Justice.
He is currently Distinguished Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University. He is the author of Massachusetts Juvenile Law, a volume of the Massachusetts Practice Series.
