Interview with Judge Carmen E. Espinosa
IntervieweeInterview with
Carmen E. Espinosa
InterviewerInterviewed by
Peter T. Zarella
American, born 1949
Date2016 November 9
DimensionsDuration: 8 Minutes, 52 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Judge Carmen E. Espinosa who was interviewed by Judge Peter T. Zarella on November 9, 2016 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Carmen was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Connecticut in 1952. Her father was a laborer, and her mother worked in a factory in New Britain. She grew up in New Britain and attended New Britain Senior High.
- Higher Education: After graduating high school in 1967, Carmen Espinosa attended Southern Connecticut State University from 1967 to 1968, then transferred to Central Connecticut State University from 1968 to 1971, graduating with honors and a degree in Education, majoring in Spanish and French. She initially planned to be a teacher and was awarded a fellowship to Brown University's PhD program, intending to become a college professor.
- Early Career: After five years of schooling, she took a leave from Brown and taught seventh grade in Southington, Connecticut. She realized she disliked teaching and, in 1973, decided to pursue law school after a chance encounter with a friend applying to law school.
- Law School: Carmen attended George Washington University Law School, starting in 1973, amidst the Watergate hearings. She felt that she and other Hispanic students were sometimes treated differently as a "novelty." She participated in the "Law Students in Court" program, a civil clinic representing indigent defendants in civil and housing courts.
- Jobs: During her summers in law school, she worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Agriculture Office of Legal Counsel.
- Bar Exam: She took the bar exam in 1976 for Washington, D.C., focusing her coursework on subjects likely to be on the bar exam for New York, Connecticut, and D.C.
- FBI Career : In 1976, after graduating law school, Carmen Espinosa was recruited by the FBI as a special agent. Her fluency in Spanish, legal background, and status as a woman and minority were factors in her recruitment. She officially entered on duty on October 4, 1976. She graduated and became proficient in shooting firearms. Her first assignment was in Newark, New Jersey, where she worked on white-collar crime. She spent three and a half years with the FBI.
- State's Attorney's Office : After her FBI career, Carmen decided she wanted to practice law, specifically as a trial lawyer. She visited the UConn Law School's placement office and found an announcement for a position at the State's Attorney's Office. She applied for the position and became a prosecutor.
- Judicial Career: Carmen was the presiding judge in Hartford in 1997, handling pre-trials and assigning cases for trial. She presided over cases like murder, sexual assault, and armed robbery cases, as well as a complex death penalty case.
- Appellate Court: Governor Dannel Malloy appointed her. She recognized the position's importance to the Puerto Rican/Hispanic community. She served on the Appellate Court for two years.
- Supreme Court: Governor Dannel Malloy also appointed her to the Connecticut Supreme Court in March 2013. Espinosa describes being an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court as her most challenging assignment. The cases are difficult and important.
- Work-Life Balance: Carmen Espinosa has three children. She acknowledges that balancing motherhood with a legal and judicial career is challenging. She has been active in community speaking and visiting schools.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Carmen was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Connecticut in 1952. Her father was a laborer, and her mother worked in a factory in New Britain. She grew up in New Britain and attended New Britain Senior High.
- Higher Education: After graduating high school in 1967, Carmen Espinosa attended Southern Connecticut State University from 1967 to 1968, then transferred to Central Connecticut State University from 1968 to 1971, graduating with honors and a degree in Education, majoring in Spanish and French. She initially planned to be a teacher and was awarded a fellowship to Brown University's PhD program, intending to become a college professor.
- Early Career: After five years of schooling, she took a leave from Brown and taught seventh grade in Southington, Connecticut. She realized she disliked teaching and, in 1973, decided to pursue law school after a chance encounter with a friend applying to law school.
- Law School: Carmen attended George Washington University Law School, starting in 1973, amidst the Watergate hearings. She felt that she and other Hispanic students were sometimes treated differently as a "novelty." She participated in the "Law Students in Court" program, a civil clinic representing indigent defendants in civil and housing courts.
- Jobs: During her summers in law school, she worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Agriculture Office of Legal Counsel.
- Bar Exam: She took the bar exam in 1976 for Washington, D.C., focusing her coursework on subjects likely to be on the bar exam for New York, Connecticut, and D.C.
- FBI Career : In 1976, after graduating law school, Carmen Espinosa was recruited by the FBI as a special agent. Her fluency in Spanish, legal background, and status as a woman and minority were factors in her recruitment. She officially entered on duty on October 4, 1976. She graduated and became proficient in shooting firearms. Her first assignment was in Newark, New Jersey, where she worked on white-collar crime. She spent three and a half years with the FBI.
- State's Attorney's Office : After her FBI career, Carmen decided she wanted to practice law, specifically as a trial lawyer. She visited the UConn Law School's placement office and found an announcement for a position at the State's Attorney's Office. She applied for the position and became a prosecutor.
- Judicial Career: Carmen was the presiding judge in Hartford in 1997, handling pre-trials and assigning cases for trial. She presided over cases like murder, sexual assault, and armed robbery cases, as well as a complex death penalty case.
- Appellate Court: Governor Dannel Malloy appointed her. She recognized the position's importance to the Puerto Rican/Hispanic community. She served on the Appellate Court for two years.
- Supreme Court: Governor Dannel Malloy also appointed her to the Connecticut Supreme Court in March 2013. Espinosa describes being an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court as her most challenging assignment. The cases are difficult and important.
- Work-Life Balance: Carmen Espinosa has three children. She acknowledges that balancing motherhood with a legal and judicial career is challenging. She has been active in community speaking and visiting schools.
Object number2024.38.43a-b
NotesProject Overview: At the turn of the 20th century, other than Mary Hall, women lawyers were virtually unknown in Connecticut. By contrast, at the turn of the 21st century, law schools were enrolling roughly the same number of women as men. Since their earliest time at the bar, women have become leaders in all areas of the profession at a pace out of all proportion to their brief history and number. In 1999, the Fellows of the Connecticut Bar Foundation initiated the Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project. Within the framework of this dynamic project, the Fellows have been creating a permanent video, audio, and photographic historical record of milestone achievements of women as they have become more visible and achieved prominence in the field of law. In 2019, a leadership donation of $20,000 from the law firm of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey enabled the project to significantly broaden its scope and plan for the future.
Through its first two phases, the project worked with award-winning documentarian Karyl Evans and attorney/photographer Isabel Chenoweth to produce fifty-eight oral history interviews with outstanding female attorneys and 118 portraits of women in the Connecticut judiciary.
The oral history interviews have collected the stories of women whose ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence dismantled barriers that historically prevented women from pursuing careers in the law. Connecticut has benefited from the efforts of these “pioneers” as they enriched the legal profession by joining the ranks of their male peers and paved the way for more women to join the profession. (Source: Connecticut Bar Foundation)
Subject Terms
- Women
- Lawyers
- Women lawyers
- Oral history
- Interview films
- Interview transcripts
- Interviews
- Oral narratives
- Attorneys
- Puerto Ricans
- Laborers
- New Britain (Conn.)
- Southington (Conn.)
- Law schools
- Washington (D.C.)
- Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Spanish language
- University of Connecticut
- Assault and battery
- Death
- Supreme Court justices
- Immigrants
- Teachers
- Family
- Education
- Judges
- Hispanic people
- People of color
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
- Firearms
- Crime
- Children
- Motherhood
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
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