Hon. Hiller B. Zobel, born Feb. 23, 1932, A.B. Harvard (1953); LL.B. Harvard (1959), was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court September 11, 1979 and served until the Massachusetts Constitution's mandatory age-70 retirement. From 1959-1967, he litigated Admiralty matters. From 1967-1979 he was an associate professor and professor at Boston College Law School and a part-time practitioner, including (during the period 1974-1979) serving as libel counsel to WCVB-TV, Channel 5, Boston.

He authored or co-authored Legal Papers of John Adams (with L.K. Wroth) (3 vols, 1965); The Boston Massacre (1970, reissued, 1996); Massachusetts Rule Practice (with J.W. Smith) (4 vols. 1974-1981 and annual supplements); Doctors and the Law (with S.N. Rous, M.D.) (1993).

In 1983-1989 and 1996-1997, Judge Zobel wrote a column for the Christian Science Monitor on law and litigation from the trial judge's viewpoint. He has also written numerous articles for American Heritage magazine and scholarly journals on legal and constitutional history, subjects on which he frequently lectures to professional and lay audiences.