Faculty Directory

Hon. Joseph LaPlante

Adjunct Professor

Profile

Joseph Laplante has been the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of NH since 2011.  He was nominated and confrmed to the federal bench in 2007.  He attended Nashua (NH) High School, and went on to Georgetown University, earning an A.B. cum laude in American Studies in 1987, and his J.D. cum laude from Georgetown Law in 1990.  After several years with the Manchester, NH law firm of Wiggin & Nourie, Judge Laplante began his career in public service with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, serving as an Attorney, then Assistant Attorney General and, ultimately, Senior Assistant Attorney General in its White Collar Crime Unit and (then new) Homicide Unit.  From 1998 to 2000, Laplante worked with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in the Public Integrity Section as a member of the Campaign Financing Task Force, where he tried cases and argued appeals in Washington, D.C. and Los Angles, CA.  In 2000, he became an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Boston, and then Concord, NH, primarily working on the New England Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, and eventually serving as First Assistant United States Attorney.  He is a member of the adjunct faculty (teaching Statutory Interpretation) of University of New Hampshire School of Law, and serves on several court governance committees in the U.S. Judiciary.  He is a boxing referee, licensed to officiate both professional and amateur bouts.  Judge Laplante will teach Statutory Interpretation in the fall.