Joseph B. Kittredge is an American lawyer who was a partner at Ropes & Gray from 1979 to 2005 and later served as general counsel of the Boston investment firm Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Massachusetts and District of Columbia bars.
Background
Joseph B. Kittredge's documented formative years centered on the Boston and Cambridge area of Massachusetts, where he completed both his undergraduate and legal education at Harvard during the 1970s. Harvard, established in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
His legal training at Harvard Law School, which was founded in 1817, was followed in 1979 by his admission to the Massachusetts bar, the same year he completed his law degree.
Education
Kittredge received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1976. Harvard College, the undergraduate college of Harvard University, has long offered a broad liberal arts education and is the oldest of the university's faculties.
He then studied at Harvard Law School, one of the oldest law schools in the United States, and received a Juris Doctor in 1979. He was a member of the Harvard Law Review, the student-edited journal founded in 1887, which gave him experience with legal scholarship during his law studies.
Career
Kittredge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1979 and to the District of Columbia bar in 1981. In 1979 he joined the law firm Ropes & Gray as a partner, and he practiced there until 2005.
Ropes & Gray was founded in 1865 in Boston by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law School graduates. During the Great Depression the firm developed a bankruptcy practice, and the New Deal expanded its labor work, while the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission added financial reporting to its services. By the 1960s the firm had grown to nearly 75 attorneys.
In 2005 Kittredge became general counsel of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC, an investment management firm founded in Boston in 1977 by Jeremy Grantham, Richard Mayo, and Eyk van Otterloo. The firm managed money for institutional clients such as pension funds, endowments, and foundations, and it was known for a value-oriented approach. He served as general counsel until 2018 and is now retired.
Membership
Kittredge serves on the Board of Trustees of Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private law school in South Royalton, Vermont. The school was established in 1972, held its first classes in 1973, and is the only ABA-accredited law school in the state.
He has also served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, a nonprofit organization that defends individual rights and civil liberties under the United States Constitution.
Member, Board of Trustees
Vermont Law and Graduate School
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United States
Board member
American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts
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United States
