Chafee nominates Sandra Lanni for family court judge

LANNI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Sandra A. Lanni, a lawyer with more than three decades of experience in Rhode Island's courts, is Governor Chafee's nominee for a seat on the Rhode Island Family Court.

Lanni's nomination for the position vacated by Judge Raymond E. Shawcross was announced by the administration Thursday afternoon.

"Sandra Lanni is extraordinarily well qualified for this position," Chafee said in a news release.

Lani is a former general counsel for the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education who has been running her own firm, focusing heavily on family law.

In the 1980s, she wrote a U.S. Supreme Court brief taking issue with a Nativity scene displayed on public property by the City of Pawtucket.