In all the roles she has taken on–from prosecutor to defense attorney, to leader, teacher, and guide–Carol has tirelessly pursued justice and fairness. Honored by dozens of organizations for the quality and scope of her work, Carol is a true icon in the Boston legal community.
Carol Starkey has been a trial attorney for 34 years. In 1989, she began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting narcotics, rape, and white-collar crime cases in Bristol County District and Superior Courts. She also briefed and argued significant interlocutory appeals in the Supreme Judicial Court. Carol then worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Bureau of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, where she was promoted to Chief of the Economic Crimes Division and served under both Attorneys General Scott Harshbarger and Tom Reilly. While at the AGO, Carol prosecuted numerous complex larceny, securities, public corruption, insurance, and tax fraud cases, including as sole or lead counsel in a number of state criminal jury trials lasting between two and five weeks. Carol was also an Instructor for the AGO’s Trial Training program and Coordinator for the Criminal Bureau’s Summer Intern Program. She spoke throughout the Commonwealth on prevention and prosecution of white-collar crime, financial exploitation, elder abuse, and domestic and family violence.
In 2002, Carol joined the firm of Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford, LLP (“Conn Kavanaugh”) where she continues to represent individual and corporate clients in all forms of litigation concentrated in the areas of criminal and regulatory law, employment, and business litigation. Her expertise is in white-collar criminal defense, involving allegations or charges brought by state and federal prosecutorial agencies, here and in Washington D.C., consisting of financial or healthcare fraud, labor and public corruption, insider trading and other financial trading violations.
During her career, Carol was the 2001 Winner of the Outstanding and Invaluable Prosecution Award by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts (2001). She received the Blue Ribbon Recipient for Excellence in Public Service in 2002 from the Massachusetts State Treasurer. Carol made law in the Commonwealth in the area of Economic Crimes prosecutions after a five week trial in which the Court clarified the theories of larceny and the giving of a general unanimity instruction to the jury.
During her tenure as Chief of the Economic Crimes Division, Carol obtained well over 300 convictions and dispositions totaling over $70 MM in stolen funds from victims across the Commonwealth.
As a defense lawyer at Conn Kavanaugh, Carol has been involved in some of the highest profile white collar criminal cases in the Commonwealth, putting her skills to work on behalf of individuals and companies spanning multiple industries. She has defended clients in some of the largest criminal investigations brought by the Attorney General’s Office. As a defense lawyer, Carol has defended RICO cases, Securities matters, multi-district litigation matters, and many individuals and companies in major federal public corruption investigations. Carol has taught and published multiple CLEs and MCLEs on trial practice and the use of social media at trial. She is also called upon frequently to conduct in-house trainings for her own firm.
Currently, Carol Co-Chairs the White Collar and Regulatory department at her firm, and serves on the firm’s management committee, the hiring committee and the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee. She also is a member of the Board of Editors for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. She is an AV-rated lawyer with Martindale-Hubbell. Here are some other accomplishments and honors Carol has received.
- 2012 Selected as Top Women in the Law Honoree by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly;
- Recognized as “Top 50 Women New England Super Lawyer” (2012, 2014-2019);
- 2017 Selected as Circle of Excellence Honoree by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly;
- Elected to Management Committee of the Firm in 2015 and re-elected in 2021;
- Recognized as “Top 100 Super Lawyer” in Massachusetts (2014-2018, 2022) and in New England (2014);
- AV Peer Review Rating, the highest rating in The Martindale-Hubbell Lawyers Directory;
- Best Lawyers in America© (2016-2023), Specialties for 2023: Commercial Litigation Criminal Defense: White-Collar, Litigation – Labor and Employment;
- Designated as “Top Lawyers” 2021-2022 by Boston magazine, under Criminal Defense/White Collar.
Carol has remained an active leader in Boston’s legal community. In 2011, the Boston Bar Association honored Carol with the President’s Award on behalf of the Boston Bar Association’s (BBA), where she developed the Co-chaired the Diversity & Inclusion mentoring Program. Carol proceeded to hold many elected positions at the BBA, including President-elect, Vice president, Treasurer, Secretary, a member of Council and the Executive Committee, and the Co-Chair of the BBA’s Criminal Law Section. She was elected President of the Boston Bar Association for the 2016-2017 program year, where she developed a series of industry-specific conferences and laid the groundwork for executing the future Strategic Plan of the BBA. She also launched the American Bar Association’s Resolution 113, targeting the issues of diversity within corporate practice, and frequently spoke out on the importance of civil legal aid funding and the need for criminal justice reform in Massachusetts.
Carol also was appointed to several Legislative Commissions throughout her career, including as Committee Member by Governor Deval Patrick to the Gubernatorial Commission to study compensation of Assistant District Attorneys and Public Defenders, and the Legislative Commission to study Civil Asset Forfeiture. She also served on the Joint Bar Committee for Judicial Appointments from 2010-2013, and was Vice-Chair for the White Collar Investigations and Defense Committee of the Internal Defense Counsel (“IADC”).
After serving as BBA President, in 2021 Carol was appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts to a five-year term on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (“MLAC”), the largest funding source for civil legal aid organizations in Massachusetts, where she still serves and has mediated Town hall sessions with state senators and representatives. Carol has also had an opportunity to be a founder for the Suffolk University Law School annual event: “All Rise: Uniting to Advance Women and the Future of the Law.” Since the launch of All Rise in 2018, the event has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for scholarships to low income students.
Finally, Carol has recently been appointed for a two-year term as a member of the American Bar Association’s (“ABA”) House of Delegates (“HODs”), representing the BBA’s 13,000 members at the national Association (2022-2024), and is the current Massachusetts Chair for ABA membership. As a member of the HOD, she has worked on significant issues of ethics within the legal industry, such as speaking on the need for a binding rule of professional ethics for the United States Supreme Judicial Court.
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