Martha Coakley (’79) Is the First Woman Elected Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—Another First for a BU Law Alumna

BU Law alumna Martha Coakley (’79) was elected Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on November 7.  She had served as Middlesex District Attorney since 1999. 

After law school, she worked in Boston as an associate at the law firms of Parker, Coulter, Daley & White, and Goodwin Procter.  In 1986 she joined the DA's office as an Assistant District Attorney in the Lowell, Massachusetts District Court office.  A year later, she was invited by the U.S. Justice Department to join its Boston Organized Crime Strike Force as a Special Attorney. Coakley returned to the District Attorney’s Office in 1989 and was appointed the Chief of the Child Abuse Prosecution Unit two years later.

She is the former president of the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Association and former president of the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts.  She also serves as the chairman of the Board of Directors of Middlesex Partnerships for Youth, Inc. 

Ms. Coakley’s election marks another first for a BU Law alumna.  She joins the ranks of women who have made history following their graduation from BU Law, including:

• Leila Robinson (Class of 1881) – the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Bar

• Consuelo Northrop Bailey (Class of 1925) -- the first woman lieutenant governor elected in the nation

• Clara Bruce (Class of 1926) -- the first Black editor-in-chief of a law review in the nation

• Barbara Jordan (Class of 1959) ---the first Black woman from a southern state to serve in the U.S. Congress

• Sandra Lynch (Class of 1971) — the first woman appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of appeals for the 1st Circuit

• Carolyn Berger (Class of 1976)–- the first woman justice to serve on the Delaware Supreme Court

• Shannon O’Brien (Class of 1985) – the first woman elected Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts