WBA Remembers M. Ellen Carpenter

With the untimely death of M. Ellen Carpenter on Sunday, December 10, many WBA members lost a friend, the Women's Bar Association lost a supporter, and the women lawyers of Massachusetts lost a champion, role model, and indefatigable mentor.

Ellen’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, Ellen 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. Ellen 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. And, just this year, Ellen became the first female president of the Notre Dame Law Alumni Association.
Although Ellen’s professional accomplishments were stellar, her personal side was no less impressive.

Friendly, upbeat, warm, gracious, strong, dedicated, supportive, humorous, ethical, and a pillar of integrity––Ellen was all of these and so much more. Never abrasive, she nonetheless never shied away from an issue that was important to her. She was a dedicated aunt, sister, and daughter, never too busy for her family, and never more proud than when speaking of her niece and nephews.

Despite her many activities and commitments, Ellen was never too busy to help a friend or even a stranger. She especially loved meeting and mentoring new lawyers, and particularly enjoyed serving as the moderator of the annual Boston Bar Association symposium for new lawyers entitled “Mistakes New Lawyers Make.” Ellen was a regular attendee at WBA events, a senior member of one of the WBA's mentor circles, and an enthusiastic participant in WBA programs.

Abraham Lincoln once said “Live a good life, and in the end, it’s not the years in a life, it’s the life in the years.” Ellen certainly lived a good life. And although the years in her life were tragically cut short, the life in those years was beyond measure.

About the Women’s Bar Association
Formed in 1978 by a group of activist women lawyers, the Women’s Bar Association has grown to more than 1,000 women lawyers from around the state, committed to the full and equal participation of women in the legal system and a just society.