2007 Lelia J. Robinson Award Recipients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Julia Huston, President
Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts
617-692-2264
wbapresident@womensbar.org

Elisabeth J. Medvedow, Executive Director
Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts
(617) 973-6666
medvedow@womensbar.org

Special Thanks to our Sponsors:

Women’s Bar Association Announces 2007 Lelia J. Robinson Award Recipients

(Boston)- August 2, 2007- The Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts announces the recipients of the organization’s prestigious 2007 Lelia J. Robinson Award:

Nancy J. Kelly, Senior Attorney and Acting Managing Attorney of the Immigration Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services

Jane E. Tewksbury, Department of Youth Services Commissioner

M. Ellen Carpenter, past Boston Bar Association President; Partner at Roach & Carpenter (posthumous recipient)

The awards will be presented at the WBA’s Annual Gala on October 17, 2007 at the Westin Copley Place Hotel, Boston. The honorees, selected by the WBA’s Board of Directors, are exceptional women who exemplify leadership in the legal community and strive for progress and justice in our society. Named for Lelia J. Robinson, the first woman admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts, the award has been presented since 1994 to attorneys who capture Robinson’s spirit and dedication to excellence. WBA President Julia Huston remarked, “The WBA is thrilled to have the opportunity to honor these leaders in our field and our community. Every day, Nancy Kelly and Jane Tewksbury put their skills and talents to work for some of the most vulnerable members of society. Ellen Carpenter, our posthumous honoree, was a tremendous influence on so many members of our organization. Her mentorship and generous spirit are greatly missed.”

Nancy J. Kelly is a senior attorney and acting managing attorney of the Immigration Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services and the co-managing attorney of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinic. She is also an adjunct instructor of Boston University School of Law and the co-founder of the the Refugee Law Center, which received the Founders Award by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Ms. Kelly’s entire legal career has been devoted to human rights and immigration issues for indigent and low-income immigrants. In addition to her representation of individual clients, Ms. Kelly has presented cases before the Human Rights Commission of the OAS and has written extensively on immigration issues, particularly on issues of gender and asylum. She was instrumental in establishing procedures for women and children to assert their rights to asylum protection in the U.S. She often works with battered women who need to establish asylum separately from their husbands. She is a founder of the internationally acclaimed Women Refugee Project which has been a centerpiece of the Harvard Immigration Clinic. Ms. Kelly is a graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, holds a Master’s degree from Antioch College Institute of Open Education, and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law.

Jane E. Tewksbury is Commissioner of the Department of Youth Services. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Tewksbury served as the Undersecretary of Forensic Services at the Executive Office of Public Safety. Ms. Tewksbury has also served in a variety of human service and criminal justice-related positions including Legal Counsel to former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, Assistant Attorney General, General Counsel for a private provider, and Assistant District Attorney. During her tenure at the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Tewksbury established the office’s nationally recognized priority unit for the prosecution of serious and habitual violent juvenile offenders. Selected in 1993 as a Fellow in the Children and Family Fellowship of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ms. Tewksbury was deployed to the Arkansas Department of Juvenile Justice and later to the Maryland Subcabinet on Children, Youth and Families, to work on state level systems reform efforts affecting disadvantaged children and families. As a member of the 1992 Juvenile Justice Commission of the Supreme Judicial Court, Ms. Tewksbury co-chaired the CHINS Subcommittee which recommended a repeal of the state’s CHINS law, an issue now before the Massachusetts State Legislature. Currently, Ms. Tewksbury is a member of the Governor's Anti-Crime Council, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Trust Fund, which leads statewide efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect by supporting parents and strengthening families. She is also a frequent teacher and public speaker, as well as the author of a number of legal articles on the rights of individuals with disabilities, elder abuse and domestic violence. Ms. Tewksbury is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and Harvard/Radcliffe College.

M. Ellen Carpenter was a valued member of the WBA and the legal community in Massachusetts as a whole. With her untimely death in December 2006, many WBA members lost a friend, the organization lost a supporter, and the women lawyers of Massachusetts lost a champion, role model, and indefatigable mentor. Ms. Carpenter’s successful professional history was a litany of firsts: in 1989, she was one of the founding partners of Kern, Sosman, Hagerty, Roach & Carpenter, the state’s first all-women law firm, now known as Roach & Carpenter. A renowned bankruptcy attorney, Ms. Carpenter was the first female attorney from Massachusetts elected a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, a selective and prestigious association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. Ms. Carpenter was also the first woman to chair the Boston Bar Association’s Bankruptcy Section, and, in 2004-2005, the first bankruptcy attorney to be President of the Boston Bar Association. A longtime WBA supporter, Ms. Carpenter was active in the WBA Mentoring Circles program up until the time of her death. In her role as a WBA mentor, Ms. Carpenter generously offered support, guidance and advice to young women attorneys at various states in their careers.

With this award, Nancy Kelly, Jane Tewksbury and Ellen Carpenter join a distinguished group of honorees. Past recipients of the Lelia J. Robinson Award include U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton; former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno; Maria Krokidas of Krokidas & Bluestein; Stephanie Page of the Committee for Public Counsel Services; Lauren Stiller Rikleen of Bowditch & Dewey; Janet Donovan of Casa Myrna Vazquez, Inc.; Nadine Cohen of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights; and Ellen Kearns of Foley & Lardner LLP.

About the Lelia J. Robinson Award

The Lelia J. Robinson Award honors women attorneys who have captured the spirit of Lelia J. Robinson through professional excellence, mentoring other women, and performing exemplary public service on behalf of women. The WBA seeks nominees each year from a wide variety of geographic and ethnic backgrounds who have demonstrated a base of community and/or organizational support for their activities.

About the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts

Founded in 1978 by a group of activist women lawyers, the Women’s Bar Association is one of the oldest and largest bar associations in the country. Today, the organization boasts a membership of more than 1300 women lawyers, judges and law students across Massachusetts. The WBA is committed to the full and equal participation of women in the legal profession and in a just society. The WBA works to achieve this mission through committees and task forces, and by developing and promoting a legislative agenda to address society’s most critical social and legal issues. Other WBA activities include drafting amicus briefs, studying employment issues affecting women, encouraging women to enter the judiciary, recognizing the achievement of women in the law, and providing pro bono services to women in need through supporting its charitable sister organization, the Women’s Bar Foundation. For more information, visit www.womensbar.org.

Sponsorship of the WBA Gala is a highly visible way of demonstrating a commitment to women and to women attorneys throughout the Commonwealth. Benefits of Sponsorship include free tickets, free promotion and advertising in Women’s Bar Review; Week in Preview, the Gala magazine, and at www.womensbar.org. The evening will be shared with nearly 1,000 attorneys, judges, legislators, and business professionals in attendance. Law Firm Sponsorships begin at $2,500 for Bronze, $5,000 for Silver, and $10,000 for Gold. Corporate Sponsorships are also available. For more information or to become a sponsor, please contact Executive Director Lissy Medvedow at medvedow@womensbar.org, or call 617.973.6666.