Attorney Jim Carrigan Editor’s note: Attorney Jim Carrigan has been a vital member of the Lynn community for more than 50 years, working tirelessly for the people who need him most. To honor him, the New Lynn Coalition presented a tribute to the social justice advocate last week. Carrigan served as a state representative and state senator for the Essex District, and in 1971 went to Mississippi to train newly enfranchised African-American activists to run for political office.
Carrigan helped candidates in New York and Virginia who were endorsed by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; and helped Sen.
Kennedy in California in the 1968 Democratic presidential primary. He assisted Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy in his campaigns in Massachusetts and did advance work for both brothers. Carrigan grew up in West Lynn — poor, he says — and has long been a voice for those who need one. Carrigan has served as president of the boards of LEO Inc.
, the Greater Lynn YMCA, Greater Lynn Senior Services, and Lynn Community Health Center; and was an executive board member of the Lynn Business Partnership. He also hosts “The American Dream,” a public policy cable TV program for Lynn Community Television. Carrigan is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and successfully represented the Lynn Teachers Union before the United States Supreme Court.
He practices law with his wife, Attorney Anne Gugino Carrigan, and his daughter, Attorney Lisa Carrigan Bacik. Carrigan has spent his career concentrating on Social Sec.
