In Memoriam: Marion Fremont-Smith

Marion R. Fremont-Smith of Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government passed away on December 30.

An ALI member since 1977, she served first as Reporter for Restatement of the Law, Nonprofit Organizations, before taking on the role of Consultant. The Restatement was published in 2021.

Fremont-Smith’s interest in nonprofit organizations began in the 1960s when she served as Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Division of Public Charities in Massachusetts. In 1964, she joined the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall and Stewart where she specialized in tax and nonprofit law. She was elected partner in 1971 and retired from the firm in 2004. Fremont-Smith was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990.

Fremont-Smith had been associated with the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government since 1998, where she directed research on governance and accountability of nonprofit organizations. She was also a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School between 2008 and 2011. She was an Honorary Director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Director of Independent Sector and the Council on Foundations. She authored several books, including Governing Nonprofit Organizations: Federal and State Law and Regulation (Harvard University Press, 2004).

She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Read a tribute to Fremont-Smith by Restatement of Charitable Nonprofit Organizations Reporter Jill R. Horwitz of UCLA Law here.