By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Colebrook Attorney Jonathan Frizzell said he has the training, knowledge and temperament for the job of Superior Court judge.
“I have made my life’s work advocating for others,” he said during a public hearing on his nomination before the state’s Executive Council on Wednesday. “I can do this job and do it well.”
Public service, he said, from being raised in the North Country “was something you did. Like eating ham on Easter…” he said.
A number of north country leaders and lawyers from across the state came to Concord to support the governor’s nomination and urged his confirmation.
The council did not vote on Frizzell’s nomination but is likely to do so in two weeks when the council meets next.
Frizzell said he grew up as the third son in a lower-middle class family in Coos County.
“I can’t say we were poor but we certainly were not rich,” he said.
Frizzell said he received almost a four-year scholarship at Dartmouth College and worked cleaning dishes in the dining hall for a year and then in the convenience store at the dining hall for the rest of his time there.
He said he had been raised well enough to be grateful for the opportunity to attend college and went on to UNH School of Law in Concord with the single hope of working for Coos County attorneys Phil Waystack and David King. He is now a partner with the firm Waystack Frizzell.
He said he learned from them that the most important thing was if the judge believed what was being said.
Frizzell said the early years were hard for his wife, Kathy. Their children were not in attendance for the hearing.
“They are not here today to support dear old dad because they are working,” he said and need to get good day care and pay off their student loans.
Frizzell invoked the words of the late Superior Court Judge Harry Perkins.
He said Perkins told him to speak clearly to the jury on what they are being asked to do. He said he admired Perkins’ work ethic and rapport with everyone.
Gary Hicks, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice, who also grew up in Colebrook, said he was enthusiastically in support of the nomination. He said Frizzell is extremely bright, exceptionally hard working, and patient to a fault.
He said he once represented Hick’s mother’s estate.
Greg Eaton, a litigator in Littleton, also endorsed the nomination.
Karen Harrigan, who is publisher of the Colebrook News and Sentinel also came to support the nomination. She said he is “judicious” and while she supported the nomination, Harrigan said she will miss him as a lawyer caring for the needs of the people.
Former Supreme and Superior Court Chief Justice Robert J. Lynn and current state Republican Representative from Windham, said his intellectual ability, candor and demeanor make Frizzell a great nominee.