Professor Musinsky to Receive Ricker Achievement Award

Professor of Law and Externship Director Ellen J. Musinsky has been selected to receive the 2009  Marilla M. Ricker Achievement Award.  The award will be given to her by the  New Hampshire Women's Bar Association (NHWBA) at its annual Fall Reception October 22.

The achievement award, celebrating its tenth year in 2009, is named for Marilla M. Ricker, the first woman to apply for admission to the New Hampshire bar.  It honors outstanding women lawyers in New Hampshire who have achieved professional excellence, paved the way to success for other women lawyers, advanced opportunities for women in the profession or performed exemplary public service on behalf of women.

The NHWBA selected Prof. Musinsky because, as a woman attorney in New Hampshire, she has spent her entire career helping other attorneys through teaching, mentoring and advocating on their behalf.  She joined Franklin Pierce Law Center over twenty years ago and has worked to develop the clinical programs that train hundreds of students to be competent, as well as compassionate, attorneys.  She currently teaches and directs the externship program.  She has litigated cases at all court levels and has been actively involved in the legislative process.  She was one of the founders of the New Hampshire Women's Lobby and the New Hampshire Citizen's Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Rights.  She has served as chair of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and has served on the board of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union. In fine, Musinsky has served as a strong mentor and role model for women entering the legal professions, achieving professional excellence along the way.

In receiving this award, Musinsky joins a coterie of Franklin Pierce Law Center honorees:  Cathy J. Green, JD '77 and Trustee, received the award in 2001; Adjunct Professor Emily Gray Rice was honored in 2003; Professor Mary Pilkington-Casey, JD '86, director of the school's Administrative Advocacy Clinic was awarded it in 2005; Adjunct Professor Barbara Keshen was selected in 2006; and Sherilyn Burnett Young, JD '82 and Trustee, was the recipient in 2007.  Last year's Ricker Achievement Award was  presented to Justice Carol Ann Conboy, JD '78 and Trustee.