03/31/2023
As a women-owned law firm, we celebrate women and their accomplishments year-round. As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we wanted to share some fun history facts about women in the legal profession. 🌈
1. Though rare, there are documented cases of women arguing before colonial courts in America in the 17th and 18th centuries.
2. In 1879, Belva Lockwood became the first woman to be admitted to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court (she also ran for president in 1884 and 1888!).
3. Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, accepted a job as a legal secretary after graduating at the top of her class from law school. No law firms were willing to hire her because of her gender.
4. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, joined the faculty of Rutgers Law School in 1963, she discovered that her male colleagues received higher salaries. She joined an equal pay campaign that resulted in women professors earning substantial pay increases.
5. In 2014, Michelle Kwok Lee became the first female director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
