McDermott Will & Emery is poised to bring back Robert Cordy, who spent the past 15 years as an associate justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, as a litigation partner in Boston.

Cordy, 67, was appointed to the state’s top court by former Republican Gov. Paul Cellucci in 2001. He announced in February that he would retire. Cordy previously spent eight years at McDermott, where he once managed the firm’s Boston office.