Remembering Carolee Byrley

It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of our dear friend and treasured community member, Carolee Byrley. Carolee passed away on October 29th, 2024, from complications related to diabetes.

Carolee was a vibrant presence in our EDRM Weekly Support Call community, always showing up as her authentic self and offering genuine friendship and kindness to everyone. She openly shared her struggles and successes, the things that brought her joy (her beloved dogs), and her humor, making her a cherished member of our group.

Beyond our Tuesday night calls, Carolee was an active participant in our webinars, virtual lunches, and online discussions. She was always eager to connect, learn, and contribute. Many of you shared special moments with Carolee – in-person brunches and conferences, lunches, career advice, and heartfelt calls – and she treasured those connections deeply.  She even showed up in Doug Austin’s eDiscovery Today blog.

“Carolee told Holley, Kaylee, and me about the calls and notes she had received from community members over the years. She told us all with excitement about brunch with Monica, seeing Jen, lunching with Dr. J, sending texts to Sheila, fangirling over Very Special Master Craig Ball, working on career advancement with Khrys McKinney, heartfelt calls with Darius, and all of the kind notes and calls over the years, especially those of you who helped her with employment opportunities,” said Mary Mack, EDRM CEO and Chief Legal Technologist.

Craig Ball, a dedicated member of our weekly support calls, shared this heartfelt tribute:

“Carolee was the best friend I never met. She embodied grit and sweetness, carried scars with strength, and faced life’s challenges with a quiet resilience. I knew her only through a weekly Zoom call that began in the isolating days of the pandemic. Yet, over the years and more than 200 hours of sharing life’s trials, joys, and struggles—always having each other’s backs—we became a family of friends.
 
Carolee bore more than her share of heartbreak: losing her wife to cancer, facing the uncertainty of repeated job losses, and battling pet troubles and that unrelenting diabetes that so suddenly took her from us. Through it all, she showed up, week after week, Tuesdays at six eastern, ready to share her burdens and lighten ours.

Carolee wasn’t always her own best friend, but she was unfailingly a kind and loyal friend to us. Even on her hardest days, she had compassion to spare, offering care and comfort that made every one of us feel seen, heard, and valued. Isn’t that the most beautiful gift—to feel genuinely cared for?

Thank you, Carolee, for showing us what it means to care deeply and love generously. You made a difference in my life, and in the lives of others. I’ll miss you every Tuesday at six, and every other moment in between.”

Carolee recently welcomed a new puppy into her life and was moving forward after the loss of her wife, Eileen Garner, in 2022. She was a fighter, and her spirit will be deeply missed.  Here is Carolee’s LinkedIn presence.

To honor Carolee’s memory, we will be holding a special memorial during our December 3rd Community Support Call at 6 PM Eastern. We will extend the call past 7 PM for anyone who needs support around losing Carolee or anything else.  To attend the memorial, please email info@edrm.net for the Zoom link, which will be the same link as our normal EDRM Community Support Call link.

Darius Bennett, an EDRM Global Advisory Council leader and pillar of our EDRM Support Call Community, encapsulates our missing her:

“I am befuddled. That sixty years are not young enough to defeat death (for, say, two more decades of life). That I can sign off with someone about whom I care, wish them well until next time, and they not appear when next time arrives. That Carolee’s square on Zoom will now be empty. Thich Nhat Hanh, in one of many teachings he offered on Love, once said, “To love is not to possess the other person or to consume all their attention and love. To love is to offer the other person joy and a balm for their suffering.” In that way, I hope I loved her and that she felt it. I will miss her smile. I will miss her nimble repartee. I will miss her absolute hilarity when she sensed the room needed humor. And, as I move forward in life, because of her fully open to love again, I hope to always remember the best lesson Eileen and she taught me: It is Love that gives life meaning.”

Carolee with friends at Everlaw Connect
Images: Kaylee Walstad.

For those in or near Washington, DC, a celebration of Carolee Byrley’s life will be held on Dec. 7 at 3 PM at Friends of Washington, 2111 Decatur Place, Washington, D.C., where friends encourage those who knew her to share memories of her life. Her eDiscovery community is explicitly welcome to attend and offer memories at the microphone.  There will be a reception at Friends following the memorial.

In lieu of flowers, Carolee’s dear brother Jason has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of the memorial to be held in Washington DC on Dec 7.

Carolee was also devoted to her rescue dogs. Please consider donating to your local dog rescue organization in her name or to a shelter supported by the San Diego Paralegal Association’s Virtual Lunch with Leaders community, of which Carolee was a regular participant.

Assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies per EDRM GAI and LLM Policy.