Former Town Councilor Completes Law Degree

Eamon McCarthy Earls, a twice-elected member of the Franklin Town Council, was awarded his juris doctorate degree last week at George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia.  McCarthy Earls had reluctantly surrendered his seat to relocate to the Washington. D.C. area in the summer of 2020. Cobi Frongillo secured the vacant seat in the special election that followed. 

Mirroring his own approach to tolerance and conviviality in Franklin politics, graduation keynote speaker Rachel Brand, executive vice president of global governance, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of Walmart Inc. spoke at length about the need for lawyers and others to engage with those with whom they disagree. She cited the long and close friendship between GMU Law School namesake, Antonin Scalia, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg -- nearly always at odds in their rulings but mutually devoted in their private lives-- as exemplars of this approach.

"Rachel Brand spoke from long experience but I would say the lessons of my time on Town Council were similar -- disagree forthrightly but avoid personal attacks and learn from those with whom you disagree," said McCarthy Earls.

During his time at George Mason, McCarthy Earls served as an intern for the Honorable Judge Joshua Wolson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, helping to draft opinions for the judge, then as an appellate legal intern for the Honorable Justice Serge Georges of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Subsequently, he worked with litigators in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, a prominent boutique litigation firm in Virginia, the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps, and a civil rights advocacy organization in Colorado.