Vickie Henry, senior staff attorney and Youth Initiative Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), has been nominated to serve on the Massachusetts Appeals Court by Governor Charlie Baker.
In an Oct. 1 GLAD press release, Janson Wu, GLAD’s executive director, said, “We are so proud and excited for Vickie and this recognition of what an accomplished attorney she is.”
Henry, said Wu, “is a thoughtful, thorough, compassionate, and extremely hard-working. The citizens of the Commonwealth – and most especially its youth – will benefit from her service on the bench. We will be sad to see Vickie go, but GLAD’s incredibly high quality lawyering means we will occasionally be poached!”
According to the press release:
Henry left a partnership at Foley Hoag LLP in 2011 to join GLAD. While at GLAD, Henry built the Youth Initiative, and worked with state agencies around New England developing and implementing system-wide policies that respect and support LGBTQ youth. She worked with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services and the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families to develop SOGIE policies for those states. On the legislative side, Henry worked to add a non-discrimination clause to Rhode Island’s recently passed Children’s Bill of Rights, and worked on coalitions in both Massachusetts and Maine on anti-bullying laws.
“Vickie created a strong foundation for the Youth Initiative, and the lives of LGBTQ youth are the better for it,” said Wu. “We are committed to building on her work, and continuing the many strong partnerships she nurtured.”
On the litigation side, Henry was part of GLAD’s legal team challenging the Defense of Marriage Act with the cases Gill v. OPM and Pedersen v. OPM; in that capacity, she organized businesses to sign on to amicus brief supporting the end of DOMA. Henry was GLAD’s lead attorney on the lawsuit Held v. Colvin, filed in conjunction with the Justice in Aging and Foley Hoag, challenging Social Security’s discrimination against married same-sex couples. Henry also worked on the trial phase of the Michigan lawsuit DeBoer v. Snyder, challenging that state’s marriage ban. DeBoer ultimately went before the U.S. Supreme Court as one of the cases consolidated with Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case establishing the right to marriage equality nationwide.
