Gov. Maura Healey has nominated Justice Deepika Shukla to the Massachusetts Superior Court. She will now be considered by the Governor’s Council for confirmation.

The Superior Court is a trial court of general jurisdiction for Massachusetts. The court’s 82 justices sit in 20 courthouses in all 14 state counties.

The Superior Court has exclusive original jurisdiction of first-degree murder cases, and has original jurisdiction of all other crimes, civil actions over $50,000, matters where people are seeking equitable relief, and actions including labor disputes where people are seeking injunctive relief.

The Superior Court also has exclusive authority to convene medical malpractice tribunals, has appellate jurisdiction over certain administrative proceedings, and may hold naturalization sittings in any city or town.

Healey’s office provided the following biographical information about the nominee:

Deepika Shukla

Shukla currently works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Springfield Branch Office at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts. In this role, she supervises all federal criminal cases in western Massachusetts and has represented the U.S. in criminal prosecutions of hate crimes, excessive force, terrorism, fraud, and violent crimes. She also works as an adjunct professor at Western New England School of Law. She previously worked as a plaintiffs’ civil rights attorney at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and in private practice. Shukla holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a juris doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She lives in Northampton.

|