Thomas C. Carey – 50th Reunion Essay

Thomas C. Carey

15 Meeting Place Circle

Boxford, Massachusetts 01921

TomCareyjr@yahoo.com

617-821-1297

Spouse(s): Ivis V. Carey (25 years)

Child(ren): Alexander and Thomas (twins, 1988)

Education: SUNY at Buffalo Law School

Career: Intellectual property attorney, Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers 20+ years

Avocations: golf

College: Trumbull

I graduated from college with nary a thought about what I’d do next. Flotsam, I drifted out to San Francisco where I got hit from behind while riding a motorcycle at 70 mph, went over the handlebars, and decided in midair that California was not for me.

I came back East, settled in Cambridge, learned the basics of computer programming and worked for a few years at that trade. While I found it interesting, I wanted something that would get me more involved in the world. I spent three years at the New York City Planning Commission, working at Alex Garvin’s office. It was stuffed to the gills with Yale grads whom he recruited out of his city planning seminars. That was fun!

I became involved in the approval process for housing developments in New York, which caused me to explore most nooks and crannies of all five boroughs of the city. But a crossroads emerged: should I go to law school or commit to government service? Not feeling especially adept at finding my way in large bureaucracies, I opted for law school, shuffling off to Buffalo, where the tuition was low and there were few distractions from my studies. Along the way there were some lovely girlfriends, but I was not ready to settle down.

After law school and an apprenticeship at a very nice firm in Buffalo, the gravitational pull of Boston drew me back. I returned in 1981 and have remained in this area ever since. I met my bride here on a blind date arranged by a Buffalo connection. Ivis is a bright and hardheaded woman, qualities that I need to keep me pointed in the right direction, or something approaching it. We’ve had two sons, twins, who are now grown and gone. One is trying to find a path in film, the other in finance.

Professionally I’ve found a home at a smallish intellectual property law boutique, where I handle the business transactions and my partners either spin patents out of inventions or fight over them on behalf of clients.

I’m not quite ready to hang up my spurs. I enjoy the immersive nature of law and its endless variety of challenges, ideas and new developments. I don’t like tracking my time in six-minute increments. But the exposure to creative types like inventors and the businesses built around their creations gets my juices flowing.

As for the Yale connection, my most enduring experience was my six weeks spent heeling for the Yale Daily News. My articles were revised often and brutally, opening my eyes to the wide gap between the way that I expressed myself and the way others like to read. If there is one enduring learning experience I took away from Yale, that was it. As for the other parts of the experience, they are lost in a haze.