Honorable Karen R. Carroll

Associate Justice

Biography:

Justice Carroll, of Vernon, VT, was born in Newport, Vermont on February 7, 1963. She graduated from Proctor High School in 1981 and from Salve Regina College, cum laude, in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Degree in Criminal Justice and English and French Literature. She earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Vermont Law School in 1988. She was a Deputy State's Attorney in Windham County from September 1988 to June 1994, prosecuting serious felony cases and assigned as Chief Deputy State’s Attorney for most of that time. In 1994, she began work with the Vermont Attorney General's Office, as the prosecutor for the Southern Vermont Drug Task Force. During this time, she was also cross-designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Vermont and prosecuted serious drug cases in the U.S. District Court. In December 2000, she was appointed a Superior Court Judge by Governor Howard Dean and has presided in the Family, Criminal and Civil Divisions of the Superiors Courts in Windham, Windsor and Bennington counties. Justice Carroll is a member of the American Law Institute and is former Chair of the state Board of Continuing Legal Education and Vermont Judiciary Criminal Division Oversight Committee. She is married to Richard C. Carroll, a partner in the law firm of Philips Dunn Shriver & Carroll in Brattleboro. They have three children.

On April 26, 2017, she was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court by Governor Phil Scott.

Education:

  • Salve Regina College (BA, 1985)
  • Vermont Law School (JD, 1988)

Division:

Supreme Court