Bessie Dewar

Dewar graduated from Harvard University earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Philosophy degree from Pembroke College, Cambridge and earned her Juris Doctor from Yale University. After law school, Dewar served as a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary, starting with Louis H. Pollak of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, then William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and finally Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States.^[2]

Dewar joined Ropes & Gray LLP working as an appellate and trial-level lawyer. She then became a civil rights advocate at the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia.^[2]

Dewar served as the state solicitor of Massachusetts from 2016 to 2024. She was appointed to the position on November 28, 2016 by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Prior to serving as the state solicitor, Dewar had served as the assistant state solicitor under former state solicitor Peter Sacks.^[2]

Dewar served as the acting attorney general of Massachusetts after Maura Healey was sworn in as the Governor of Massachusetts at noon on January 5, 2023, taking the helm of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office from Kate R. Cook, until Andrea Campbell was sworn in on January 18, 2023.^[3]

On December 8, 2023 Governor Maura Healey nominated Dewar to a seat on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to fill the vacancy left by the retitrement of Justice Elspeth B. Cypher.^[4][5] A hearing on her nomination was held later that month and she was confirmed unanimously by the Massachusetts Governor's Council on January 10, 2024.^[6][7][8] She was sworn in on January 16, 2024.^[9]

While working in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Dewar secured a $3.5 million settlement from Aspen Dental, which was accused of deceptive advertising claims.^[10]

Dewar is the mother of two children.^[11]