Year Honored: 2017

Biography

Following a distinguished career as a state prosecutor and corporate litigator, the Honorable Carolyn Berger became the first woman Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery in 1984. Ten years later, Governor Tom Carper appointed her to the Delaware Supreme Court, making her the first woman justice to sit on the state’s highest court.

Justice Berger faced the obstacles of gender discrimination like many others of her generation. She was denied job opportunities with the all-too-familiar reasoning that she “might get pregnant and quit,” or that she would “take a position away from a man who needed a career.” Undeterred, Justice Berger went on to blaze a 20-year trail for women and men alike on the Delaware Supreme Court.

After graduating from the University of Rochester in 1969 and earning a master’s degree in elementary education from Boston University in 1971, Carolyn Berger began her career teaching fourth grade in the Boston public school system. Moving to Alaska in 1972, she expected to continue teaching, but a one-year state residency requirement forced a career change, and she took a job as a legal secretary. By the time a year was up, she had become so intrigued by her employer’s work as a trial lawyer that she applied to law school, earning her Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 1976. If Alaska hadn’t kept her from the classroom, Delaware might never have benefited from her legal acumen.

While raising her family, Justice Berger served as a Deputy Attorney General with the Delaware Department of Justice and an associate member on the Board of Bar Examiners. She was President and Vice President of the Milton & Hattie Kutz Home; a member of the Junior League of Wilmington Community Advisory Council; and served on the boards of the Jewish Federation and the Delaware Region National Conference of Christians & Jews. Justice Berger was an associate with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom prior to her appointment to the Court of Chancery in 1984, becoming the first woman to sit on the court.

In 1994, she was appointed to the Delaware Supreme Court, again serving as the court’s first woman justice. She received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Widener University School of Law in 1996.

Justice Berger’s legal intelligence is as noteworthy as her ability to work with colleagues in a fair and open-minded manner. The high level of respect for Justice Berger is evidenced by the great regard she has earned from her fellow justices. After only three years of service on the Supreme Court, Justice Randy J. Holland nominated her for the prestigious Trailblazer Award in 1997.

Among her many other accomplishments, Justice Berger was appointed in 2015 by the Chief Justice of Singapore as one of 11 international jurists to serve on the Singapore International Commercial Court. Former Governor Jack Markell may have said it best in June 2014, two months before her retirement: “For more than three decades, Justice Carolyn Berger has served the state of Delaware with distinction as a member of the finest judiciary in the nation. Justice Berger is a trailblazing jurist whose commitment to justice is second to none. I salute her for her service to the state of Delaware.”
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Sources and Additional Readings

Carolyn Berger. Ballotpedia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://ballotpedia.org/Carolyn_Berger.

O’Sullivan, S. (2014, June 20). Del.. Supreme Court Justice Berger to retire. USA Today. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/06/09/del-supreme-court-justice-berger-retire/10240025/.