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Three women admitted to CNMI Bar
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Posted on Apr 29 2005
For 35-year-old Ellsbeth Viola Alepuyo, becoming a lawyer is the fulfillment of a childhood dream.
“I really wanted to be an attorney. I want to help the CNMI people,” she said.
That desire motivated Alepuyo to pursue a Law degree at the University of Idaho’s College of Law, although she was already earning hefty paychecks as an aircraft technician for six years after serving the military for four years.
Alepuyo made history yesterday when she became the first Carolinian woman to be admitted to the CNMI Bar Association.
Alepuyo, who also traces her roots to Cebu, the Philippines, joined two other female attorneys, Rosemond Blanco Santos and Diane Sablan Cabrera, in being sworn in to the Bar in a ceremony attended by the Commonwealth’s magistrates at the Supreme Court.
Alepuyo has been working for the Public Defender’s Office. Chief public defender Masood Karimipour said of Alepuyo: “She reflects on her own upbringing. She says growing up not wealthy was not a bad thing; it was, in retrospect, a blessing. Viola feels for those who are less fortunate and wants to be their fighter.”
Santos graduated from the University of Denver and has been working for the Attorney General’s Office. Cabrera, who has a New Mexico law license, had served as assistant public defender.
In yesterday’s ceremony, associate justice Alexandro Castro advised the three lawyers to ask themselves the tombstone question: “When you die, what do you want the people to say about you?”
“It takes years to build a reputation. It takes a second to destroy your reputation,” Castro said.
