Judge Richard E. Welch III is a retired Superior Court Justice and former Assistant United States Attorney. Early on in his career, Judge Welch clerked for a federal judge, worked at a large Boston law firm, and then served for 13 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. As an AUSA, he held various positions including Deputy Chief of the Civil Division and Chief of the Economic Crimes Division. He received numerous awards for his prosecution of white collar and environmental criminal cases. Judge Welch was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1993 and served until 2017. As a Justice of the Superior Court, Judge Welch served as the Chairperson of both the Appellate Division of the Superior Court and the Criminal Committee. He was also the Chair of the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Criminal Rules.

Judge Welch has taught the course 'The Federal Courts and the Federal System' at New England Law for more than 35 years. He has written extensively on the subject and published several law review articles on advanced constitutional law and federal court issues. Welch, who has authored numerous articles and short stories, recently published a novel entitled What Carries You: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir.