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Interview with Judge Holly Fitzsimmons

IntervieweeInterview with Holly Fitzsimmons American

InterviewerInterviewed by Alyssa Esposito

Date2016 November 9

DimensionsDuration: 9 Minutes, 3 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation

DescriptionOral history interview with Judge Holly Fitzsimmons who was interviewed by Alyssa Esposito on November 9, 2016 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.

Topics Discussed:

- Background : Judge Fitzsimmons was born in Waterbury and raised in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Her father worked in rubber shops and later Pratt & Whitney, and her mother worked at the Farrel Corporation factory in Ansonia. The family moved to Naugatuck, and her father had a gas station until the Flood of 1955.

- College: Judge Fitzsimmons initially considered teaching as a career. She later developed an interest in journalism while working part-time at the Naugatuck Daily News. She entered Smith College in 1967, seeking a broad liberal arts education. Her class (Class of 1971) was significantly influenced by the women's movement.

- Early Career in Journalism: During summers while at Smith, Judge Fitzsimmons worked at the Waterbury Republican.

- Mentions of riots in Waterbury following the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.

- Marriage: Judge Fitzsimmons married a fellow intern from the Waterbury newspaper at Smith College chapel. Her husband was teaching while awaiting draft numbers.

- Living Overseas: They decided to live in England in April 1973. During this time, she pursued her interest in history, visiting sites related to the Wars of the Roses and the early Tudor period. They were abroad during the 1972 election, gaining a valuable outside perspective on American events like the Vietnam War and President Nixon.

- Law School: She was accepted into a joint history and law program at the University of Virginia, and entered law school in 1973.

- Early Legal Career: After her first year of law school, she returned to work at the Waterbury newspaper. She interviewed with firms in Connecticut and was offered a summer job at Robinson & Cole, which was seeking its first woman lawyer. She had a welcoming experience at the firm. She took a full-time position at Robinson & Cole after graduating in 1976 and worked there until the fall of 1978. She was given many opportunities, including an appellate case involving the Feres Doctrine.

- U.S. Attorney's Office: Following her argument in the Second Circuit, she was invited to join the U.S. Attorney's Office for trial experience. She tried significant cases, including the first continuing criminal enterprise case involving a marijuana importing operation in the early 1980s, which she tried against her former mentor Jim Wade. In 1986, she became the head of the Bridgeport office. She then began handling international money laundering and illegal export cases, notably prosecuting Arif Durrani in 1986 for shipping Hawk missile parts to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.

- Magistrate Judge : After about 14-15 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Judge Fitzsimmons began considering an alternative due to increasing case complexity and stress. A new magistrate judge position became available in Connecticut, and she took it.

- Work-Life Balance in the Legal Profession : Judge Fitzsimmons emphasized the ongoing challenge of work-life balance for lawyers.

Object number2024.38.44a-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)