Easthampton’s Dan Carey sworn in as clerk of courts

Former state representative Dan Carey is sworn in as the new clerk of courts for Hampshire Superior Court on New Year’s Day.

Former state representative Dan Carey is sworn in as the new clerk of courts for Hampshire Superior Court on New Year’s Day. CONTRIBUTED

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

Staff Writer

Published: 01-02-2025 3:46 PM

EASTHAMPTON — For the first time in more than 30 years, Hampshire Superior Court has a new clerk of courts.

On New Year’s Day, former state Rep. Dan Carey was sworn in at the Old Town Hall on Main Street in Easthampton by Superior Court Judge Michael Callan, marking a changing of the guard for the clerk of courts after the retirement of Harry Jekanowski Jr., who held the position since 1994.

A former state representative for the 2nd Hampshire District, which includes Easthampton, Hadley, South Hadley and parts of Granby, Carey comes from a family with a strong political and legal background. His grandfather, William Carey, also had served as the state representative for the same district, and Carey’s father, Richard Carey, had been a superior court judge and also emceed his son’s swearing-in ceremony.

The ceremony was something of a homecoming for Carey, who got his start working as a district court administrator at the Northwestern district attorney’s office. While there, he took night classes at Western New England Law School, and after graduating was an assistant district attorney, as well as serving on the Easthampton City Council and School Committee, before being first elected to the Legislature in 2018.

During his time in the Legislature, Carey held the number two role on the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, and served on the Judiciary Committee, Election Laws Committee, and Environmental and Natural Resources Committee. But Carey said he was looking forward to going back to the legal world.

“As much I loved being a state rep and working in the House of Representatives, I was interested in getting back into the legal community,” Carey said in an interview. “Whereas as a state rep we’ve seemingly got 7,000 bills in front of us on 7,000 issues, I’m looking forward to being back in the courthouse and just focusing on the law again.”

Carey acknowledges he had big shoes to fill when it comes to succeeding Jekanowski, who had been a presence in the courthouse for decades and had become one of the best-known faces of the court in the greater community.

“Jekanowski’s been there for so long and he’s done such a good job, not only doing the work but making it look easy,” Carey said. “There’s a lot of moving pieces, so the first order of business will be familiarizing myself with the job and all of its ins and outs.”

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Carey said one initiative he’d like to see in the court is an upgrading of the court’s information technology infrastructure, with other courts across the state upgrading in part thanks to a $1.23 billion bond bill passed by the Legislature in May to improve IT services across state agencies.

“Other courthouses have been able to advance with newer technology faster than we have in Hampshire County, and I think we need to catch up a little there,” Carey said. “We didn’t have Wi-Fi in the building two years ago, and now every courthouse has Wi-Fi. Little things like that, I think we’ll be able to make some updates and improvements.”

The clerk of courts oversees administrative tasks for a court of law, including managing court records, scheduling cases and hiring court personnel, and presiding over minor cases. The clerk is also responsible for administering the oath of office for officials, including the district attorney, county sheriff and registrar of probate.

Carey will be replaced in the Legislature by Homar Gomez, a former Easthampton city councilor. Gomez also was sworn in on New Year’s Day.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.