Hon. Richard Simons currently serves as the First Justice of the Berkshire Division of the Probate and Family Court. He was appointed to the Court by Governor Deval L. Patrick in March 2008. He serves as Chair of the Court’s Education Committee and is a Trustee of the Flaschner Judicial Institute.

He serves on the Advisory Committee for both the J2J Mentor Program and Changing Lives Through Literature Committee. In 2014, he and his Chief Probation Officer conceived of and implemented a program, Enhancing Families Through Literature, based on the successful alternate sentencing program, Changing Lives Through Literature. The program works with families caught up in litigation before the Probate and Family Court to develop parents’ communication skills in a non-adversarial environment while at the same time, promoting the value of reading to children. In 2017, Enhancing Families Through Literature was recognized with the Irwin Cantor Innovative Award given by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts for innovative court-connected programs.

Judge Simons is the Chief Justice of the Trial Court’s designee to sit on the Board of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation.