Judge appointee defended Ariel Quiros, Steven Bourgoin

Governor Phil Scott last week appointed two Vermont Superior Court Judges: veteran defense lawyer Robert Katims of Hinesburg and Orange County prosecutord H. Dickson Corbett of East Thetford.

There are 14 units of the Superior Court, one corresponding to each county. The Superior Court has five divisions: civil, criminal, environmental, family, and probate. The Superior Court also has a Judicial Bureau, which has statewide jurisdiction. Suspects who are arrested by police and then charged by prosecutors are then arraigned before a Superior Court judge. Superior Court judges currently earn $175,000/year, about $9000 less than VT Supreme Court justices.

Katims has over thirty years of experience practicing law with a background in criminal and family law. Katims has worked at Hoff Curtis, P.C. since 1992, where he served as a partner and managing partner.

Katims has been defense counsel in many high-profile cases in Vermont, including wrong-way driver-killer Steven Bourgoin and NEK fraudster Ariel Quiros. He has practiced in every county in the state and in Federal Court. He is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a founding member and past-president of the Vermont Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and a past member of the Vermont Association for Justice.

Katims graduated from Vermont Law School. He graduated from the University of Vermont after moving to Vermont from New Jersey. He and his wife live in Hinesburg, with their four children.

H. Dickson Corbett has been a prosecutor in Orange County since 2013 and was appointed by Governor Scott as Orange County State’s Attorney in April 2021. He was elected to the role as an independent in 2022. Prior to that, he served as a law clerk and staff attorney with the Vermont Judiciary.

He is the chair of the Vermont Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence and has served as a member of the Vermont Advisory Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Vermont Advisory Committee on the Rules of Family Procedure, and the Vermont Model Criminal Jury Instruction Committee.

Corbett received a B.A. in English at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a J.D. and M.S.E.L. from Vermont Law School.