CARMEL EBB

EBB--Carmel "Kim," was the first woman to hold a judicial clerkship on a United States Court of Appeals, and later a partner in a prominent Manhattan law firm when few women had the opportunity to attain that status. Mrs. Ebb died on February 10, at the age of 94. Mrs. Ebb (then Prashker) grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She was a self-described "Dodgers groupie," often skipping school to attend baseball games at Ebbets Field and once finding herself on a "date" (a Coke at a malt shop) with a prominent player. Her casual attitude toward attending classes did not prevent Mrs. Ebb from academic success, and she went on to complete Barnard College and Columbia Law School in a total of five years, receiving her law degree at age 21. Although she graduated first in her law school class, Mrs. Ebb found the choices for women in the law severely limited. In 1945, law firms would hire female attorneys, but almost exclusively for back room positions drafting relatively routine documents, with no prospect for client contact or for being part of, much less leading, more weighty and exciting matters. Women at that time could also find work as government lawyers, but even here typically played their parts far in the background. Undeterred by her bleak job prospects, Mrs. Ebb applied for a position as judicial clerk to Jerome Frank on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, then considered the best appellate court in the country. Judge Frank, one of the leading jurists of the day, had earlier written in the Saturday Evening Post that women were every bit as able as men to succeed in the workplace, and that they ought to be given the chance to do so. Mrs. Ebb wrote to Judge Frank, asking whether he would afford her the kind of opportunity he had urged employers to make available to women generally. True to his principles, Judge Frank hired Mrs. Ebb as the country's first female law clerk to a federal appeals court judge. Later in life, Mrs. Ebb regularly mentored and supported young women lawyers, as Judge Frank did for her. A matchmaking court librarian introduced Mrs. Ebb to Lawrence F. Ebb, then a judicial clerk to another of the Second Circuit's judges. Mr. Ebb had graduated first in his class at Harvard Law School after his return from naval service during World War II, and Mrs. Ebb found him to be smart, funny and handsome. Barely seven months after meeting, the two were married. Mr. Ebb would move on to a clerkship in Washington, DC with Fred Vinson, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Mrs. Ebb also sought a Supreme Court clerkship, and had what she believed to be a promising interview with one of the justices. The justice concluded their conversation, however, by saying that while he had no doubt she would be a fine clerk, his wife would never allow him to work in such close proximity to a woman. Rebounding from this disappointment, Mrs. Ebb secured a position in Washington with the recently formed Atomic Energy Commission. Mrs. Ebb next served as Associate General Counsel to the National Sciences Foundation, from 1951 until 1954. Seeking more time to raise her three young children, Mrs. Ebb took on a series of part-time positions. These included assisting a prominent labor arbitrator, serving on a national task force looking into self-dealing by charities and foundations, and editing a securities law publication. Mrs. Ebb also found time to represent children and young adults in family court proceedings. In 1972, Mrs. Ebb returned to work full-time, soon becoming a full partner in one of New York's most respected labor law firms. Here, Mrs. Ebb specialized in litigation, arbitration and administrative agency proceedings, all the types of work which at the outset of her career had been denied to her, and to nearly all female attorneys. In 1987, Mrs. Ebb took a position as an attorney in the Supreme Court Branch of the National Labor Relations Board, in Washington, DC. After retiring from the NLRB in 1990, Mrs. Ebb stayed active in the law until her mid-1980s. She served as a hearing officer adjudicating disputes between the District of Columbia and its employees, and as a court-appointed advocate for children in foster care. From 2010 until 2017, Mrs. Ebb served on a grant advisory group, helping the Montgomery County Council determine which nonprofit organizations should receive funds for programs supporting disadvantaged area residents. Following the death of her husband in 2000, Mrs. Ebb moved to Maplewood Park Place, an independent living community in Bethesda, MD. Mrs. Ebb found at Maplewood a population of caring, active and intellectually curious seniors and a warm and compassionate staff. Mrs. Ebb served on Maplewood's board of directors and on a number of its governance committees. She cherished her time, and especially her many friends, in the community. In December 2018, the American Bar Association published (in its online ABA Journal) an article by Mrs. Ebb recounting some of her early experiences as a woman in the law. She would later deride as "foolishness" the suggestion that she had been any kind of a trailblazer for other female attorneys, describing her achievements as "mostly luck." But for all her professional modesty, Mrs. Ebb was openly proud of, and took great joy in, her successes as a mother and grandmother. To her three children and six grandchildren, Mrs. Ebb offered unconditional love, but also unabashed (and almost always sound) advice. Her combination of steadfast emotional support and unstinting rationality helped children and grandchildren alike through difficult times, often aided by a milkshake and an order of French fries from which she would pilfer shamelessly. To the chagrin and amusement of her children and then their children, Mrs. Ebb remained a formidable ping pong player into her 80's, and a rarely beaten Scrabble player into her 90's. She grudgingly gave up kayaking with her grandchildren at what she considered the premature age of 91. Mrs. Ebb is survived by her daughter Nancy and her sons David and Peter, as well as her grandchildren Michael and Daniel Ford and Joseph, Sam, Sara and Max Ebb. She also leaves behind her son- in-law Gary Ford and daughters-in-law Winnie Ebb and Frances Green.