Who’s in the running for two open Rhode Island Superior Court seats

Rhode Island’s former U.S. attorney, along with a labor lawyer and policy adviser to the House of Representatives, are among a total of eight finalists under consideration by Gov. Dan McKee to fill two vacancies on the state’s Superior Court.

The state’s Judicial Nominating Commission sent two lists of recommendations to McKee following the panel’s Aug. 12 interviews with applicants to fill the seats formerly held by judges Jeffrey Lanphear and Joseph A. Montalbano.

By law, the governor has 21 days to pick a nominee after the commission interviews and selects finalists to fill vacancies on the bench. Nominees for these lifetime appointments will require confirmation by the Rhode Island Senate. 

That gives McKee up until Sept. 2 to announce his two nominees, a week before the Sept. 9 primary.

“As we always have, we will take the time necessary to thoroughly vet candidates for these important positions,” Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee’s office, said in an email to Rhode Island Current. “We are currently reviewing the candidate background information received from the JNC. As of Friday afternoon, McKee’s office had not yet started interviews.

The base salary for a Superior Court judge is $211,734.

The contenders for Montalbano’s old seat

Five finalists were selected to fill the vacancy created by Montalbano’s ascension to presiding justice of the state’s top trial court in April: Angelyne Cooper-Bailey, Family Court Magistrate Denise Cassisi Finkelman, labor attorney Carly Iafrate, Superior Court Magistrate Amanda Valentino, and Assistant Attorney General Ania Zielinski. 

Valentino was the only applicant to receive unanimous support from the nine-member panel. She was appointed magistrate in 2023 by then-Presiding Justice Alice B. Gibney where she oversees many of the Superior Court’s specialized programs and calendars, including those for drug treatment, diversion and early termination of probation, as well as cases involving sexually violent predators.

Valentino worked as an assistant public defender from 2012 through 2022 before a one-year stint as deputy chief of legal services for the state Department of Revenue, according to her resume.

Iafrate received support from eight members to fill Montalbano’s seat. She is a labor and employment lawyer who has operated a private practice since 2003, her resume notes. Iafrate helped negotiate the three-year contract the state reached with multiple public employee unions in 2024. That same year, she represented then-Senate Majority Whip Valarie Lawson before the Ethics Commission over whether her former career as a teacher and her position as president of a state teachers’ union prevented her from voting on pension-related legislation.

Iafrate was among the five finalists the commission recommended in February to fill the Superior Court seat now occupied by Maria Ferro Deaton. Iafrate received five votes to make the shortlist to fill Lanphear’s vacancy.

Zielinski was recommended by six members of the Judicial Nominating Commission. She is a longtime state prosecutor who has handled hundreds of criminal cases, including murder, child molestation, sexual assault, robbery and white-collar and financial crimes.

Between 2021 and December 2023, Zielinski served as deputy chief legal counsel for the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulations before she rejoined the office of attorney general where she now works as senior trial counsel.

Cooper-Bailey, who received support from five commissioners, is the executive counsel for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training and serves as a judge for the Cranston Municipal Court. Since 2021, she has worked as an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, where she graduated cum laude in 2008.

Cassisi Finkelman, who was appointed Family Court magistrate in 2021 by Chief Judge Michael B. Forte, also received five votes from the commission. She presides over several Family Court calendars, including contested divorces, custody, placement, parenting time, child support, grandparent visitation, restraining orders, and relocation trials.

The finalists for Lanphear’s seat

For the opening created by Lanphear’s retirement at the end of April, the Judicial Nominating Commission advanced Iafrate, former U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha, and Joelle Rocha.

Cunha, who was appointed Rhode Island’s top federal prosecutor by President Joe Biden in 2021, received five votes from the commission. Under his tenure, Cunha’s office pushed the city of Pawtucket to ensure Spanish-speaking voters have proper assistance during elections, sued CVS for allegedly contributing to the opioid crisis, and pushed the nation’s oldest community bank to address claims it discriminated against Black and Hispanic borrowers in Rhode Island.

He stepped down from the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2025 after President Donald Trump took office. He now works in private practice as a partner at Nixon & Peabody LLP in Providence. 

Cunha was hired by General Assembly leaders last November to question then-Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti at length during a joint oversight hearing on the ongoing closure of the westbound Washington Bridge.

Rocha practices with Adler Pollock & Sheehan, where she’s focused on real estate development, land use and real estate litigation since joining the Providence-based firm in August 2025. 

Since 2022, Rocha has served as a legal and policy adviser for the state’s House of Representatives where she drafted and analyzed housing-related bills between the 2023 and 2026 legislative sessions.

Her resume notes she’s provided legal, procedural, and policy counsel to the Speaker of the House, committee chairs in committee hearings and floor debate. Rocha received the support of five commissioners.