Martha Coakley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martha Coakley is the District Attorney of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and has been since January 1999. She is currently the District Attorney involved in the forthcoming Neil Entwistle double murder trial. Coakley was elected Massachusetts Attorney General in the 2006 general election as a Democrat.
Coakley was born in North Adams, Massachusetts and currently resides in Medford, Massachusetts. She is married to husband, Thomas F. O'Connor, Jr.
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[edit] Education
- B.A. degree, cum laude, Williams College (1975)
- J.D. degree, Boston University School of Law (1979)
[edit] Career
She began as an associate at the law firm of Parker, Coulter, Daley & White, and later practiced at Goodwin Procter - both in Boston, Massachusetts. She joined the DA's office in 1986 as an Assistant District Attorney in the Lowell, Massachusetts District Court office.
A year later, she was invited by the US 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.
[edit] Tenure
During her tenure as Chief, District Attorney Coakley investigated and prosecuted hundreds of celebrated cases, including Commonwealth v. Louise Woodward.
In December 1997, Coakley resigned her position to campaign for District Attorney in the 54 cities and towns of Middlesex. During her term as District Attorney, Coakley has been recognized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Massachusetts School of Law and the Frank J. Murray Inn of Court.
In November 2000, the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts honored Coakley with its coveted Leila J. Robinson Award for her contributions to the field of law. And in June 2002 - the year she was President of the Massachusetts District Attorney's Association - the YWCA Boston selected her as a member of its Academy of Women Achievers Class of 2002.
In [2004], she received the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Pinnacle Award for Excellence in Management in Government. She also received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the Massachusetts Democratic Party in 2006. A former president of the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts, she has served on the Board of Directors at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Middlesex Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
