From Coverture to Supreme Court Justice Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History

Home , Betty Roberts, Norma Paulus, Oregon Supreme Court

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by Janice Dilg

These are really great women and they’re doing great things for women in law. — Agnes Petersen1

Women who advocated for of the legal profession to serving at the right to vote understood that every level of the judiciary in our state enfranchisement was only one step in and nation. full citizenship. With the vote, women The U.S. District Court of Oregon could pursue a range of economic, is the trial court of the federal court civil, and social rights by holding elec- system. Each state in the country has tive office, serving on juries, changing at least one district court, and Oregon’s laws, making laws, and enforcing laws. District Court began with statehood in The U.S. District Court of Oregon 1859. Matthew Deady was appointed Historical Society Oral History Col- the sole U.S. District Judge for Oregon, lection reveals much about the women and he remained the only Oregon who changed both the legal profession District judge for approximately the and the laws of Oregon. Oral histories next three decades. Today, the U.S. of women in this collection span from District Court of Oregon consists of the latter decades of the nineteenth twenty-five Article III, Magistrate, century into the first decade of the and Bankruptcy Court judges based twenty-first. During that time, women in Eugene, Medford, Pendleton, and moved from not having the right to Portland and is currently led by Chief vote or serve on a jury to having law Judge Ann Aiken, who became Chief degrees and working in every aspect in 2009. Members of the U.S. District

Women judges pose for a photograph at the investiture ceremony of Betty Roberts as Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court on February 8, 1982. From left to right are: Mercedes Deiz, Circuit Court, Multnomah County; Laurie Smith, District Court, Lane County; Roberts; Jean Lewis, Senior Judge, Circuit Court, Multnomah County; Helen Frye, Federal District Court, Portland; and Kathleen Nachtigal, Circuit Court, Multnomah County. Two women judges not pictured are Kimberly Frankel and Linda Bergman, both of District Court, Multnomah County.

Court of Oregon formed a historical ing: Clerk of Court, law librarian, U.S. society in 1983 with the mission “to Attorney, and the first male African collect, study, preserve, analyze, and American U.S. Marshal.3 Due to the disseminate information concerning longevity of the project, the USDCHS the history, development, character, Oral History Collection brings con- operations, and accomplishments of siderable breadth and depth to the the United States District Court for history of Oregon’s federal judiciary the District of Oregon.”2 and of the legal profession in the state. Since 1988, the U.S. District Court of Changes over time in the state’s three Oregon Historical Society (USDCHS) law schools, in the practice of law, and and the Oregon Historical Society have in how the federal court operates are partnered to collect more than 150 well documented. The collection also oral histories of judges, lawyers, and covers landmark decisions by Oregon individuals who are vital to the func- District Court judges that affect tioning of the District Court, includ- national as well as regional issues, such

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  as: Judges Robert Belloni and James and judges entered law school from Redden’s rulings in United States v. the late 1960s to the present and began Oregon (1969) about Native fishing practicing law after the passage of the rights and salmon recovery; Judge Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX Garr King’s rulings on the federal gov- in 1972. The Civil Rights Act’s Title ernment’s use of warrantless wiretaps XII section prohibits employment and a defendant’s access to evidence discrimination by race, gender, or in Al Haramain Islamic Foundation v. national origin, while Title IX requires US Department of the Treasury (2011); gender equity for males and females and Magistrate Judge John Jelderks’s in every educational program that decisions on the disposition of ancient receives federal funding. Together, human remains found along the banks the two laws changed the cultural and of the Columbia River near Kenne- professional landscape for women and wick, Washington, in Bonnichsen v. fostered their burgeoning numbers in United States (2004). King and Jelderks the legal profession. In 1947, women also have been leaders in accepting oral comprised 3.3 percent of enrollment history as valid evidence in court. in Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree programs The twenty-six interviews with in law schools. By 1974, that figure had women lawyers and judges contained risen to 20.1 percent, and in 2011, the in the collection provide a look at the percentage of women enrolled in J.D. personal and professional obstacles degree programs reached 47.2.4 they overcame in gaining access to But the intersection of women and education, employment, and career the law in Oregon and the United States advancement in the practice of law. has a more complex history that pre- At this point, the oral history collec- dates the mid twentieth century, long tion largely captures the experiences before women’s entry into the legal of many of the “firsts” in Oregon profession. Women’s lives in America women’s legal history — pioneering were circumscribed by common law, women who broke down gender bar- imported to this continent by English riers at law schools, private law firms colonists. Marriage and property laws, and government agencies, and at all or “coverture,” stipulated that a mar- levels of the bench and bar and other ried woman, or femme covert, did not legal professional organizations. have a separate legal existence from her That “first generation” of women husband. That inequality spurred the lawyers is defined here as spanning first Woman’s Rights Convention at from 1920 to 1970, when narrators were Seneca Falls in 1848, resulting in a “Dec- often the only woman, or one of two laration of Sentiments” that offered or three, in their law school class and an outline for redress to the laws that the first or second to be hired into a prohibited women from being full private law firm or by a city, county, persons and citizens.5 state, or federal judicial agency. The Women made minimal inroads into “second generation” of women lawyers voting rights before the full suffrage

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 achieved for most Oregon women in determined that a minimum-wage 1912, but upholding even those gains law for women was unconstitutional. required careful vigilance. An 1878 Justice George Sutherland, writing the Oregon statute provided that citizens majority opinion, noted that with the who met certain age, property, taxa- enfranchisement of women three years tion, and residency requirements could earlier, “the ancient inequality of the vote in school elections. When Eugene sexes, otherwise than physical” had resident Laura Harris attempted to been brought “almost to the vanish- vote in a local school election in 1897, ing point,” negating the constitutional election judges prohibited her from basis for protective, or class, legislation doing so. Harris brought suit, and the for women.7 Oregon Supreme Court upheld the One ironic aspect of the relation- right of taxpaying women to school ship of women and the law is that suffrage in Harris v. Burr (1898).6 women could practice law in the As more women became wage United States before gaining the right earners during the first decades of the to vote. Acceptance of women into law twentieth century, they also frequently schools and into the practice of law sought redress through the courts. Two was protracted over many decades and important laws for working women included many firsts.8 nationally originated in Oregon. In Oregonian Helen Althaus came 1903, Oregon’s “Ten-hour law” deter- to the practice of law after a career mined the maximum number of hours as a chemist. Graduating from the an employer could require a woman Northwestern College of Law in 1945, to work in a day and a week. The she became the first female federal law resulting case, Muller v. Oregon (1908), clerk in Oregon, a position she held advanced through Oregon’s courts to for Judge Alger Fee from 1947 to 1949, the U.S. Supreme Court, where the and then was the first female associate law was upheld as constitutional in at King, Miller, Anderson, Nash and 1908. In 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court Yerke (now Miller Nash), from 1953 again upheld the constitutional- to 1970. She formed an all-woman law ity of Oregon’s minimum wage law firm with Gladys Everett and Virginia for women and minors in Stettler v. Renwick in 1970. Her 1995 oral history O’Hara (1914). The opinions in these captures her early career as a chemist cases deemed, in part, that because and her decision to pursue the study women were “different” from men, and practice of law. and they did not have the ability to In her interview, Althaus recounts vote to change their conditions, they the difficulty of breaking into a male- were a special class in need of protec- dominated profession. Although a tion. The Supreme Court’s reasoning law firm hired her, the integration changed after ratification of the Nine- of a woman into the office and the teenth Amendment in 1920. In Adkins potential reaction of clients proved to v. Children’s Hospital (1923), the Court be challenging.

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  Jean Lagerquist Lewis graduated from Northwestern College of Law in 1938 at the top of her class and as the only woman. She worked at Lipman Wolfe Department Store after gradu-

00 9551 bb OHS digital no. ation to save enough money to open her own law office, which she did “with about $50 in my pocket.” She was soon hired as the chief rent enforce- ment attorney for the Office of Price Administration in Oregon, followed by a stint on the staff of the General Counsel for the U.S. Treasury Depart- ment in Washington, D.C., managing complex monetary transactions that were further complicated by World War II. Lewis went on to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1954 and in 1956 won election to the Helen Althaus, photographed here in Oregon Senate. She served there with 1981, understood the importance of an organization for women lawyers Mark Hatfield, and he later appointed to support each others’ professional her as the first female Circuit Court development and advancement and judge in Oregon. When the opportu- helped found Queen’s Bench in 1948 to nity came to go on the bench, Lewis accomplish those goals. was ready to accept because being a judge “had always been a dream.” In her 1981 oral history, Lewis expressed the sentiment held by many women I was hired. Not as a regular associate but as of her generation who were the first working with Mr. King. He always had some to hold particular positions: “If I goof special projects, so that was kind of getting in it isn’t only Jean Lewis who gets criti- the back door. I found out I was an associate when they put my name on the door. cism, it’s all women.” Lewis, like other women repre- The firm’s managing partner Fred sented in this collection, intersperses Yerke inquired what Helen’s middle honest assessment of her experiences name was and used only her initials, with humor. “The first few years on H.F. Althaus, “on the stationary and the bench were very lonely. At judges the door.” meetings, I was never one of the ‘fellas.’ I’d go off by myself, but over the years I was very pleased when five years later . . . I saw someone on a ladder changing my name that’s changed, and I have been very to Helen F. Althaus. That was when they had well-accepted by my fellow judges. I hired another woman lawyer, Jean Lewis.9 have nothing but the highest regard

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 for them. I’d tell them ‘there’s never no.OHS digital bb 00 9554 any crowd in the ladies’ room’.” Lewis’s interview also documents her pioneering work in domestic relations and the role of conciliation law, which offered counseling to married couples in hopes of reconciling their differences. She was the first judge in the nation to grant a single man the right to adopt a child. Lewis spent more than seventeen years on the bench and ends her interview with: “I just hope I’ve made it easier for the gals to follow.”10 Mercedes Deiz was one of those women. Deiz’s 1981 oral history captures her views of being the first African American woman admitted to the bar in Oregon and the first female In response to Gov. Tom McCall’s African American judge in the Pacific concern that her 1970 election as a Northwest as well as her activism in district court judge would have to civil rights and women’s rights orga- overcome bias against her race and nizations. After working for Graham gender, Deiz was undeterred, saying, “it’s Walker as a legal secretary, Deiz took up to me to convince the voter.” She won Walker’s suggestion that she become a every election, for district court and then lawyer by attending “night law school.” circuit court judge, until her mandatory Deiz graduated from Northwestern retirement at age seventy-two. Law School in 1959 at the top of her class and as the sole woman. A univer- sal hurdle for all law school graduates brought her years of experience and is passing the bar exam, which Deiz her perspective as an African American did in 1960: “Three days after I was woman to the table in her work with notified that I passed the bar, I tried the Oregon Supreme Court Task Force my first case. That was scary.” on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the Judicial Deiz worked as a trial lawyer in System and the Multnomah Bar Asso- private practice for several years before ciation’s Status of Women Committee. Governor Tom McCall appointed her Two of the women interviewed to the District Court. In 1972 she ran for this collection — Betty Roberts for, and won, a position on the Circuit and Helen Frye — offer examples of Court. Deiz remained on the bench the transformation of women born until she reached the mandatory in the 1920s and 1930s who followed retirement age of seventy-five. She the traditional path to marriage and

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  childrearing only to veer from that University of Oregon Law School, course to find equal satisfaction in Orlando Hollis, thought Helen was professional careers in the law. Frye’s “on a lark” and not a serious student, oral histories (1981 and 2002) docu- as did many professors. Bill reluctantly ment her marriage to lawyer Bill Frye, agreed to a second year of law school motherhood, work as a school teacher, but never seemed comfortable with decision to attend law school, and her Helen’s professional aspirations.13 career as a lawyer and a judge. Frye In 1971, the Oregon Legislature attended the University of Oregon, created a new circuit court judgeship where she earned a bachelor’s degree, in Lane County, and Frye decided to a teaching certificate, and met and seek an appointment to the bench. “I married her first husband Bill. She don’t know why I was so audacious taught at Eugene High School until to think I could get that job, but I she became pregnant, and school dis- talked to a few lawyers and told them trict rules required her to quit. “All the I was interested.” Gov. Tom McCall magazines said women were supposed appointed Frye, making her the first to have three kids and drive a station woman on the Lane County Circuit wagon, and I did. I did. I hated that Court bench. “I am eternally grateful station wagon with the bloodiest of to Governor Tom McCall. . . . He’s the passions.”11 After her third child was one who really gave me my big chance.” born in 1960, Frye decided to stay Frye considered “the circuit court one home. “I loved my children dearly. I of the best places in the world to see did everything and I just kept going the parade of humanity pass. I could downhill. All I can say is, that was see the trends in society.” During the not my destiny.”12 Bill Frye was a very 1960s and 1970s, the women’s rights successful prosecutor and Helen Frye movement focused attention on equal “was president of the Lawyer’s Wives opportunities for women in all pro- Club” in 1963, when she decided to fessions. President Jimmy Carter had attend law school. “It seemed to be pledged to give women equal oppor- such a compelling profession. . . . I tunities for judgeships in 1977, and was 32 when I started law school.” the passage of the Omnibus Judgeship Frye credits her ability to work for Act of 1978 created 152 new judgeships sixteen hours a day and her excellent and gave Carter the opportunity to organizational skills in handling the fulfill his pledge.14 He appointed Frye workload of a full time law student, as Oregon’s first female judge for the mother, and wife. Bill was “doubtful district. (She went on the federal bench about the whole thing,” she recalled. along with Owen Panner and James “We had this contract, that I would go Redden.) Frye took senior status in to law school for a year, and then, if 1995.15 Where Helen Frye became the he didn’t like my going to law school, leading woman in federal court, Betty that I would stop at the end of the Roberts made her mark in Oregon’s first year.” The longtime dean of the legislature and appellate courts.

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By 1982, women had been appointed to all levels of municipal, state, and federal judgeships, and Oregon’s governors played an important role in advancing women in the state’s judiciary. Gov. Victor Atiyeh appointed Betty Roberts (left) to the Oregon Supreme Court, Gov. Mark Hatfield appointed Jean Lewis (middle) to the Multnomah County Circuit Court in 1961, and Gov. Tom McCall appointed Helen Frye (right) to the Lane County Circuit Court in 1971.

Betty Roberts is well-known in served in the Oregon Legislature and Oregon as a first in the state’s legal was part of the 1973 session — along community. Her three oral history with Norma Paulus, Vera Katz, Mary interviews (1980, 1992, and 1994) Rieke, Nancie Fadeley, Mary Wendy cover her early family life, education, Roberts, and others — that passed marriage, and motherhood as well more feminist legislation than any as her teaching, legislative, and legal time before or since. Their legislative careers. Battling societal expecta- accomplishments addressed “civil tions of what a married mother of rights, family planning, childcare, four children should do, Roberts’s several bills on employment, and even interviews recall her avid pursuit of an anti-prostitution measure.” One of education — earning her bachelor’s, the most significant pieces of legisla- master’s, and finally a law degree. Her tion that session was HB 2116, which belief in political solutions to social banned discrimination on the basis of problems led Roberts into politics. She sex and marital status.16 Roberts also

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  ran for Governor of Oregon against Oregon Court of Appeals reversed Bob Straub in the 1974 Democratic Pri- the judgment and awarded Hewitt his mary, losing a close race. Wayne Morse claim. The Supreme Court was asked died suddenly that same year, during to rule on the constitutionality of ORS his campaign to regain his long-held 656.226, a portion of the Oregon work- U.S. Senate seat from Republican Bob ers’ compensation laws that addresses Packwood, and Roberts was chosen to compensation for unmarried men replace him as the Democratic candi- and women who have cohabitated for date. Despite her late entry into the more than one year.17 Justice Roberts race, she won 45 percent of the vote. was able to settle the intent of 1973 leg- In 1977, Straub, then governor, islation she had helped pass designed appointed Roberts to the Oregon to end discrimination in the worker’s Court of Appeals. Her interviews offer compensation statute. The Hewitt v. a view onto the difficulties of navi- SAIF opinion is often referred to as gating the personal and professional Oregon’s “Equal Rights Amendment” politics that came with being the first and is nationally recognized as a woman on that court. The breadth of landmark in state constitutional law. the USDCHS collection makes it pos- Roberts’s contributions to Oregon’s sible to read Roberts’s account of her statutes and policies were significant, time on the Court of Appeals as well and her oral histories contain addi- as the perspective of her colleague on tional insights into Oregon’s history. the court, former Chief Judge Herb One of the more unusual paths to Schwab. Public differences of opinion a legal career chronicled in the col- among women leaders is often the sub- lection is that of Norma (Petersen) ject of news stories, but Roberts’s oral Paulus. Her oral history was completed history (and others in the USDCHS in 1982. Paulus grew up in a family collection) shows that there is noth- that moved frequently, struggled to ing unique, or gender specific, about make ends meet, and finally settled in such disputes. Burns, Oregon. There, Paulus skipped Gov. Victor Atiyeh appointed Rob- grades and was recognized as one of erts as a justice to the Oregon Supreme Burns High School’s top students. Court in 1982, and she served there Her intelligence brought her “offers until 1986. Roberts had barely settled of scholarships, [but] you can be so into her position on the court when poor that you can’t take advantage of she was assigned to write the opinion them.” When Harney County’s Dis- in Hewitt v. SAIF (1982). The case trict Attorney needed a secretary, he involved a claim of benefits by Floyd hired Paulus. She worked for Leland Hewitt, Jr., after his long-time partner, Duncan and Judge Allen Biggs, gain- and mother of their child, Marian ing a “wealth of experience in the A. Williams, died in an industrial procedural aspects of the law — both accident. Denied benefits by the State civilly and criminally. It was just a very Accident Insurance Fund (SAIF), the extraordinary circumstance.”18

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 After several years, Paulus moved to lawyer, because she could do both jobs Salem, where she worked for Oregon at home and on her own schedule. Supreme Court Justice Earl “Sap” Paulus knew politics was her path Latourette, who encouraged her to forward after working on friend and attend law school. Willamette Law fellow lawyer Wally Carson’s first School’s Dean Seward Reese had a legislative campaign. “I found out I “special student status” being utilized was really good at it.” Sparked by her by a male student, and Reese accepted love of politics and also as a reaction Paulus on the same basis. She could to Bob Packwood’s repeated requests take any classes that were offered at that Paulus go to Salem as his secre- 8:00 a.m. and therefore would not tary while he was serving in the state interfere when her work began at 9:00 House of Representatives, she decided a.m. She continued in this mode until to run for the Oregon Legislature. she met and married Willamette Law “I remember being insulted by that School student Bill Paulus. Pregnant [Packwood] and thinking, ‘If I ever with their first child, Bill took Norma go down to the statehouse I’ll be going to dinner at the Benson Hotel for their under my own steam’.” Paulus served in anniversary. His gift to her was a loan the Oregon House of Representatives from a family member that allowed from 1970 to 1976 and was integral to Norma to stop working and finish law the bipartisan Women’s Caucus in the school. “My salary was very important 1971 and 1973 legislative sessions. After to us at that time. He recognized how the 1975 session, she decided to run important it was for me to finish law for the highest state office available school. He knew that the best time to in the next election cycle, and in 1976, do it was then while Elizabeth was still she became the first woman to win in the bassinet.” statewide office, elected as Oregon’s Paulus had one other female class- first female Secretary of State. mate, and although she did not expe- Many of the first wave of women rience overt discrimination, she notes lawyers were older and had children one instance of inflexibility toward who were grown, but not all of them. a working mother. “I don’t remem- Balancing the needs of family with ber any feeling of discrimination at career requirements would become all . . . except from faculty who ran more prominent with the second wave moot court and refused to excuse of women lawyers, but the issues of me from afternoon oral arguments gender, age, and women’s commitment since I didn’t have a babysitter for to their careers and their abilities as Elizabeth then.” Paulus managed to lawyers were front and center from the find a way to attend, and she went on beginning. Getting hired at a law firm to win the moot court competition.19 was often the first hurdle for women After graduation, Paulus worked for to clear, but advancing to partner and the Oregon Supreme Court writing beyond within a firm presented addi- synopses of briefs, then as an appellate tional obstacles. Velma Jeremiah and

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  placed in the Oregon State Bar Bulletin by individual practitioners looking to share office spaces and cases, but two common reactions — “you just didn’t quite fit in here” and “I’m not sure my clients would accept a woman” Courtesy of Velma Jeremiah Velma Courtesy of — made it clear they were not going to hire her. Jeremiah shied away from large law firms: “I presumed that I’d be stuck back doing research forever, and not really seeing clients. . . . One thing I wanted to do[was] to work with people.” Working as personal secretary for the president of Stimson Lumber Company, Harold Miller (including after graduating from law school), Jeremiah became acquainted with his Velma Jeremiah (VJ) is shown in the lawyers from the large firm of Davies early 1970s in her office at Davies Biggs, Biggs (now Stoel Rives). Two principal where she became the firm’s first female partners, Brian Booth and Fred Torp, partner. After her successful career in invited Jeremiah to interview with law, Jeremiah became an accomplished stand-up comedian. the firm. Despite her reservations, they were offering her just the type of legal practice she wanted to do as Barrie Herbold’s oral histories offer well as a position as a senior associ- two examples of women’s experiences ate — that is, “somebody who’s older as they worked to become law firm in age” who is brought into a firm but partners. without partnership opportunities. Velma Jeremiah has two interviews Partnerships were reserved for young in the collection, from 1994 and 2006. lawyers who specialized in a certain She recounts that she was forty-two field of law and would replace a senior years old when she began law school partner of the same specialty on that at the Northwestern School of Law person’s retirement. Jeremiah initially because she wanted something that thought the senior associate position would be challenging, pay well, and was offered because she was a woman, give her some “credential that people but Torp and Booth assured her that couldn’t ignore . . . that people would several men had that status. She first listen to what I might have to say.”20 In rejected their offer. “I don’t think I 1968, she graduated fourth in her class worked as hard as I did in law school, of fifty-five students, and after passing to [be] fourth highest in my class and the bar, Jeremiah began her search for come out and take a [position] that’s a job. She answered advertisements a dead end.” Ultimately, she decided

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 the experience would be invaluable Markowitz,Courtesy of Herbold, Glade & Melhaf and took the position.21 After three years at Davies Biggs, Jeremiah began laying plans to go out on her own. After several key lawyers left to start the firm that became Tonkon Torp, however, she found her- self in a different bargaining position. The remaining partners put Jeremiah on the partnership track and would consider her status after one more year, her sixth at the firm. Jeremiah stipulated:

That you’re all committed to giving me partner-level work. . . . I’ve been doing everybody’s scut work . . . and I do it without complaining and I do it thoroughly. I don’t want to come out a year from now and have somebody say, “Well, you’re not doing part- After graduating from college, Barrie ner–level work,” because that’s a statement Herbold decided to attend law school I’d heard them make about people who were because she believed it would “very let go. So, they gave me that commitment.22 much benefit . . . the system of justice to have more women in law school.” The following year, Jeremiah became the firm’s first female partner and the first female partner in a large Portland law firm. street from the office. Young offered Barrie Herbold’s 2001 oral history Herbold a position as an associate in also offers insight on experiences the firm. Herbold accepted as long as women lawyers encountered in the tra- it was in the trial department. Young ditional, male models of advancement responded: “Oh, my gosh, Barrie, in private practice. Herbold graduated women can’t try cases in Multnomah from the University of Oregon Law County. Juries will never accept that.” School in 1976 and wanted to be a trial Herbold held her ground and was hired lawyer. She interned with one of the as an associate doing trial work. She set oldest firms in Portland, Dezendorf a personal goal of becoming the firm’s Spears Lubersky & Campbell (now first woman partner. Making partner Lane Powell), which was in the process was then a five-year track. When that of building its trial department. At the period of time had elapsed, Herbold end of the summer, when senior part- was passed over for partner. Because ners took male interns to lunch at the she had taken six months leave for the male-only Arlington Club, partner Og birth of each of her two children, she Young took Herbold for coffee at Eve’s was told, a year had been knocked off Café in the Fred Meyer store across the of the firm’s standard calculation. Her-

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Carlotta Sorenson, Noreen Saltveit (McGraw), Catherine Zorn, Jean King, and Bonnie Mentzer (left to right) served as Assistant Attorneys General and are photographed here in that office. In addition to finding work in private law firms, women made inroads into the public sector of the legal profession as well. In 2012, Oregon voters elected the state’s first woman Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum.

bold took only six weeks off for each (now Markowitz, Herbold, Glade child. She was also reprimanded for & Mehlhaf), with her mentor Dave missing a plane and hence missing an Markowitz in 1983. The firm special- out-of-town court appearance. Young ized in trial and litigation work. The conveyed the firm’s decision: “Barrie, I partners also instituted a work culture hope you understand that this wasn’t that was designed to “never lose an meant to be a permanent rejection of employee because they were unhappy you, that we have every intention of with the way they were treated by reconsidering you next year.” the firm, that any reasonable request Herbold’s response was to form her would be agreed to, so that we didn’t own law firm, Markowitz & Herbold have disgruntled people in the firm.”

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 The firm began offering sabbaticals to not.” Another prominent law firm told me employees, then unheard of, and even that they thought I would be happy doing made a legal researcher and writer “a research in the library, like a couple of their “girls,” and I told them, “No [laughing] I partner in a trial firm who doesn’t try wanted to try cases.26 cases. She’s been incredibly helpful to us in that role.” At the time of her Oregon Attorney General Robert interview, Herbold’s firm was the larg- Thornton hired her as the Oregon est firm in Oregon that had more than Department of Justice’s first female 50 percent female partners.”23 attorney to do trial work, trying Noreen Kelly Saltveit McGraw worker’s compensation cases. Saltveit also started her own firm after facing McGraw worked in that capacity for gender discrimination. Immediately several years, got married, and had after graduating from law school, she three children. joined her father, Edward C. Kelly, in She later worked in private practice his Medford, Oregon, law practice. for some time and became involved in When he was appointed to the Circuit an important migrant worker, class– Court in 1957, she and her brother action lawsuit: took over their father’s practice until It was a time when Cesar Chavez was making the caseload was resolved. At the same great gains in California. There were some time she served as City Judge of Med- beginning attempts to organize in Oregon, ford — “in large part that was due to and the legislature passed a very regressive my being a woman, and also being a farm labor bill. . . . And the question was, brand new lawyer, because the Mayor would Tom McCall, who was then Governor, sign it? That was a very hot potato because wanted somebody who was idealistic farmers, particularly then, had a huge impact and would let people have their say in in the legislature. . . . City Court.”24 In 1960, Saltveit McGraw Because I had been so active working came to Portland, where she in support of Chicano organizations, like Valley Migrant League, Cisco Central, I was sent out résumés to probably thirty-five or asked to a strategy meeting, which was really forty law firms. . . . [Out] of those thirty-five fascinating for me. Cesar Chavez was there, to forty people that I contacted, I probably and Jerry Cohen the lawyer for United Farm had interviews with 10 to 12 different firms. I Workers. The strategy was to have a mass got one job offer out of all that. This was, of and a prayer vigil in front of the State Capi- course, before the Civil Rights Act [1964], so tol. . . . There were . . . about 5,000 people 25 people were not as careful. I had people ask- massed around the Capitol, but all in this ing me back for a second interview and say- very peaceful prayer vigil. . . . Tom McCall, ing things like, “Well, you’re a nice Catholic to his credit, did veto the bill, which took a girl. Won’t you get married and have babies, lot of courage.27 and stop practicing?” . . . They were very up front about what they were concerned about. Her hard work and past success gar- One lawyer told me, after talking to me and nered an offer to establish a public- looking at my résumé, “Well, frankly, we were looking for a glorified legal secretary, like ‘×’ interest law firm with Don Mar- firm has, but it sounds like you wouldn’t be maduke, Charlie Merten, and Larry satisfied doing that.” . . . I said, “No, I would Aschenbrenner.28

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  Saltveit McGraw and Merten col- in Hartford.”30 Olson and Jeff Rogers laborated on a case “putting the skids met and married between her second on the Mt. Hood Freeway.” The firm and third year of law school, and she also took on gender discrimination clerked for federal District Court Judge against women regarding member- Robert Zampano for a year while Rog- ship at the Multnomah Athletic Club. ers completed law school. That “suit arose because one of our Unlike earlier female law school clients . . . paid the dues for years and graduates, Olson gives no indication years and years, and then her husband, of difficulties getting interviews or job George Leonard, who was a lawyer, offers. Olson and Rogers came to Ore- divorced her, and he was going to get gon in the summer of 1973, and Judge the membership, and she wasn’t going James Burns hired her as his law clerk. to get anything, because she was no Olson next went to work for Sid Lezak longer the wife of a member. And, as as an assistant U.S. Attorney, from 1974 a result of that lawsuit, they changed to 1984. “When I started there I was the the rules, and allowed women to be first woman in the office who had ever active members in their own right.”29 done criminal work. . . . I very quickly The issue was finally resolved in 1978, got interested in environmental cases after two years of negotiations, and is and civil rights cases and tribal cases indicative of broader societal changes and cultural resource cases.”31 Those that were affecting women in the legal areas of focus would define Olson’s profession at the same time. years in the U.S. Attorney’s office. Oral histories with former Oregon I got the first felony conviction in Region U.S. Attorney Kristine Olson and Judge 10 for a polluter that was dumping PCBs on Susan Graber of the U.S. Appeals Court our kids’ playgrounds. It was right after the for the Ninth Circuit offer a view of environmental statutes were passed, so I was women who entered the legal profes- working with a lot of the early environmental sion during the 1970s and 1980s. They statutes trying to establish precedent and did the same thing with the cultural resource were part of the time period of the laws. . . . I got very involved with the tribes women’s rights movement that pro- and the elders of the tribes. Their heritage pelled greater numbers of women into was being ripped off and there were statutes traditionally male professions. Olson passed in ’78 and ’80 that made it a felony, became involved in politics as a teen- and so I worked closely with the tribes to secure those convictions.32 ager and during her years at Wellesley, defying the cultural conventions of In contrast to the negative effects her parents. When she moved into a pregnancy and children had on Her- mixed-gender house in her second year bold’s early career, Olson and Graber’s at Yale Law School, her father disowned oral histories reveal a changing work- her. “I had to go to work right away, and place. Olson’s first child was born pre- I basically worked all the way through mature and had multiple health issues. law school. First I worked at Legal Aid “I took a year off and Sid [Lezak] in New Haven, and then I worked up was fabulous because there were no

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 provisions at that time for maternity specialty appealed to them, but on leave. He went to bat for me, kept on some occasions, they took cases that extending my leave. It was an unpaid addressed gender discrimination. leave . . . I had a job to come back to.”33 Stoel Rives colleague Pam Jacklin Graber became the first pregnant brought Graber onto an important Oregon Supreme Court justice in 1998. pro bono case that addressed funding One of the interesting dynamics for me was for women’s athletics. Graber became that right around the same time I was sworn involved during the appeal phase of in as a Supreme Court justice I became preg- Blair v. Washington State University nant . . . I remember very early on telling the (1987), a case spearheaded by the Chief Justice Edwin Peterson, because I felt Northwest Women’s Law Center in as my boss he had the right to know. He was the State of Washington. “The pri- just thrilled. Later, when it became public, he seemed to refer to it as the court having a mary issue in the case was funding for baby. That very same day I talked about being women’s athletics at Washington State pregnant and expecting . . . one of my other University under state law, not under colleagues said, “Well, I have some news, Title IX. The issues included whether too.” He was adopting a child. People began football was a sport and whether its to talk a little bit more in general about their personal lives. I thought it was really quite money should be counted in deter- normalizing in a way and very, very nice. I mining whether women were treated felt really supported by the other judges.34 fairly. . . . We won some issues. We definitely achieved some better fund- Graber had grown up in Oklahoma ing for women’s athletics.”35 and Ohio before attending Welles- Despite her successes in private ley College and Yale Law School, in practice, Graber maintained her long- the same class as Olson. Whereas held attraction to appellate work, and first-generation women law students Betty Roberts encouraged her. “[At] comprised one or two of an entire some point during my Stoel Rives class, Graber and Olson were two of years Betty said that if more women twenty women law students at Yale in were going to become judges they the early 1970s. In 1978, Graber returned to Oregon, needed to organize themselves and where she had been a summer law know what was at stake, know how to clerk for U.S. Attorney Sid Lezak. Per- do it, and get started thinking about haps building on the legacy of Velma it.” Graber recalled a meeting Roberts Jeremiah, Stoel Rives then actively had organized: hired women lawyers, and they hired [Betty] was there to talk turkey about how to Graber. The firm included several become a judge . . . how to run a campaign other women associates and partners, — down to the smallest details: what calen- such as Karen Creason, and Graber dar to use; how to figure out when different activities needed to be accomplished; what found her path to partner in the firm comfortable shoes to wear; organizing so much smoother than Jeremiah’s had that you had a driver so that you could be been a decade earlier. Women lawyers rested when you got to a campaign event — routinely practiced whatever legal absolutely everything.

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  Courtesy of the USDCHS, photo by Adair Law Adair by Courtesy of photo the USDCHS,

The annual picnic held at Judge Edward Leavy’s Century Farm is an important gathering for members and honored guests of the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society. In 2007, women in the profession were honored, including (from left to right): Ellen Rosenblum (now Oregon’s first female Attorney General); Helen Burns, wife of the late Judge James Burns; Hon. Virginia Linder, first woman elected to the Oregon Supreme Court; Hon. Betty Roberts, first woman appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court; Katherine O’Neil, member of the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors; then Chief Judge, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Mary Schroeder; U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Betty Fletcher; Agnes Peterson, founding member of Oregon Women Lawyers (OWLS); Diane Rynerson, former executive director of OWLS; former Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer; Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Elizabeth Perris; U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Trish H. Brown; Christine Helmer, first woman appointed to the Oregon State Bar Board of Bar Examiners; and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Susan Graber.

Graber’s intellect, work ethic, and for the Ninth Circuit, where she con- mentoring combined to see her tinues today. appointed as the second woman on Many first-generation women law- the Oregon Court of Appeals in 1988. yers and judges had older or grown Two years later, she was appointed children before they began their to, and then elected to, the Oregon legal careers. Many of the women Supreme Court, where she served until who have followed them, however, 1998. That year, she was confirmed as had to balance motherhood with the a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals traditional model of making partner,

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 which requires working long hours Betty Roberts, and Mercedes Deiz all for years on end. Graber and Olson talked about the groups. devised new strategies. Graber and Membership in professional law her husband Bill “invented it as we and bar associations is a key net- went, which was a little bit stressful working tool for lawyers. The early for me.” Initially, “we shared a nanny successes and frustrations of women with another family. . . . When Rachel lawyers integrating various bar and was about a year old or thereabouts, professional associations is well docu- Bill stopped working and became a mented in the collection. Velma Jer- full-time parent.”36 emiah promptly became involved in Olson and Rogers first divided their professional organizations. “I always childcare needs by having Rogers work attended everything. I went to a lot of during the day and having Olson teach CLEs [Continuing Legal Education law school classes at night at Lewis & programs]. I was just immersed in Clark and the University of Oregon. law.” 38 She became a member of the Later, they job shared at the U.S. Multnomah Bar Executive Committee, Attorney’s office. Olson notes: “That and in 1971, became secretary of the was a big deal at the time. It had never committee. No woman had ever served been done before and there was a lot on the Executive Committee above of media attention and Sid [Lezak] secretary, and when Jeremiah tried to loved it. Sid went back to D.C. and fill a vacancy for vice-president, she lobbied for it all and we thought this met with resistance. The committee was great; we are finally able to work chair noted: “Well, VJ [her nickname], this out and share the job and share I think we’d be criticized if we do the childcare.”37 These experiences are that, because you’ve been such a new a small sample of what women in the member of the board.” When officer profession experienced, indicating an appointments came up the following evolution in the workplace for women year, Jeremiah declined to continue as over the past few decades. secretary. “I wouldn’t be very smart, would I, to take an appointment in The first generation of women a dead end job? You fellows all know lawyers had few female mentors. They that you’re going to move up through were mentored by male peers, and the these chairs and eventually be the importance of that personal attention chairman. That’s been a pattern for and encouragement made the women years and years.”39 realize their need to step into that role Saltveit McGraw’s oral history for those coming behind them. Formal echoes Jeremiah’s experience of the organizations central to that mentor- Multnomah Bar Association: ing process, such as Queen’s Bench and I remember going to a dinner party [and] Oregon Women Lawyers, are docu- somebody was talking about them changing mented in several key oral histories; the rules. . . . and I made some really sarcastic Helen Althaus, Katherine Huff O’Neil, remark. . . [laughing], “Oh, yeah, just about

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  the time a woman will finally have a chance O’Neil’s oral history recounts how to become President, you change the rules OWLS’ founding Board of Directors and prevent her from being it.” And there worked to provide “a structure for was sort of this shocked silence, but it was so obvious it was just terrible.40 women to have peers, to have mentoring, to have CLEs to help them in their In 1987, Susan Hammer was finally professional growth . . . and to bring elected the first woman president of issues up that nobody else was address- the Multnomah Bar Association. She ing like balancing family and career.”42 had become a member of the Oregon In addition to the explicit goal of Bar in 1976 and came from the post– bringing gender equity to all aspects Civil Rights Act and post–Title IX of the bar and bench, OWLS addressed era, when women began entering the equity for minority lawyers. Founding legal profession in greater numbers. OWLS board member Vernellia Ran- The limitations within traditional bar dall noted that, as an African American associations spurred many Oregon in a state with “few minorities,” OWLS’ women lawyers to create their own mission should prioritize working professional associations. “for the advancement of women and Althaus was one of twenty-five minorities in the legal profession.” founding women lawyers of the OWLS’ mission reflects that perspec- Queen’s Bench in 1948. The organiza- tive.43 Deiz captures the importance tion, led by Manche Irene Langley, of women lawyers banding together formalized the Women Lawyers’ in an organization like OWLS: “We Association of Oregon that had been must remember that one voice crying meeting since 1920. Queen’s Bench alone frequently is ignored, whereas met monthly, wrote a constitution, many voices loudly speaking through charged dues, and provided a frame- a spokesperson shielded by an orga- work for early women lawyers to nizational framework will be heard share experiences and strategize how and heeded.” OWLS remains a vital to advance in their profession. Over statewide organization that provides time, younger women lawyers found networking and leadership opportu- the Queen’s Bench “moribund,” and nities, mentoring, and programs that O’Neil became one of the galvanizing focus on issues important to women forces behind the formation of a new and minorities in the law. women’s bar association. Her oral history recounts the palpable desire The U.S. District Court of Ore- articulated by her and many women gon Historical Society Oral History lawyers to have an organization that collection has much to offer scholars, would address their particular profes- students, and historians. The 150 inter- sional needs.41 views span an impressive breadth of O’Neil, Roberts, Deiz, and many time and document the experiences other women effectively harnessed that helped shape lawyers’ and judges’ those needs and founded Oregon views on the law as well as insights Women Lawyers (OWLS) in 1989. on cases they argued or cases they

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 decided. Reflecting the time period that the majority of interviews with Women Included male narrators were done during the in the US District Court of Oregon 1960s and 1970s, the interviews do not Historical Society Oral History routinely address the issue of changing Collection roles for women in the profession or their personal views on women prac- Helen Althaus ticing law or being on the bench. The Metta Beeman exceptions are those attorneys, judges, Gretchen Brown or justices who had first-hand experi- Mercedes Deiz ence working directly with women at a Selma Denecke law firm or on a particular court. More Susan Dobrof inclusive questioning of male narra- Neva Elliot tors’ views on the topics of gender in Alice Tomkins Fee the profession, professional organi- Helen Frye zations, and the courts would bring Susan Graber additional depth to the comprehensive Barrie Herbold legal history of Oregon the USDCHS Carol Hewitt collection strives to achieve. Velma Jeremiah While all the oral histories address Jacqueline Jurkins the narrators’ experiences in law Hattie Bratzel Kremen school and the arcs of their legal Jean L. Lewis careers, when the narrator is a mother, Sara C. Emmons Lusk issues of balancing pregnancy and Noreen Saltveit McGraw parenting bring a different perspec- Bonnie Mentzer tive to that arc. Most male narrators Kristine Olson in the collection regularly discuss Norma Paulus those personal issues briefly and Alice Plymell express appreciation for their wives Betty R. Roberts who kept home and family together Alice Carey Rockey while they put in long hours building Katherine Huff O’Neil their practice or serving on the bench. There are a few brief interviews with the wives of well-known judges — All interviews available at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library, Alice Tomkins Fee, Selma Denecke, Portland. and Sara Catherine Emmons Lusk — that provide some perspective on the legal profession from non-practicing spouses as well as extensive social and Those numbers should increase as cultural history. women judges reach the point in their Women’s oral histories com- careers that they take senior status or prise just over 17 percent of the total retire from the bench or active prac- USDCHS Oral History Collection. tice, the criteria for interview subjects

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History  in this project. Careful discussion and broader range of experiences and per- a broader review of potential narra- spectives to the collection and would tors would also bolster the number provide a more complete contextual- of women interviewed for this collec- ization of legal history in Oregon as tion. Capturing more women’s oral well as enrich our understanding of histories for this project would bring a women’s roles in that history.

notes

1. Agnes Peterson to Noreen Saltveit org/groups/legal_education/resources/ McGraw in Noreen Saltveit McGraw, statistics.html (accessed June 27, 2012). interviewed by Diane Rynerson, SR 1277, June 5. “Report of the Women’s Rights 2000, Oregon Historical Society Research Convention Held at Seneca Falls, NY, July Library, Portland [hereafter OHS]. 19th and 20th, 1848” (Rochester: Printed by 2. Judge Owen Panner, foreword for John Dick at the North Star Office), available USDCHS bound transcripts, 2006, Oregon at http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/ Historical Society (OHS) and the USDCHS Report-of-Convention.htm (accessed July Archives, Pioneer Courthouse, Portland. 25, 2012). Some of the original officers and directors 6. “Woman Suffrage in Oregon,” of the USDCHS included: Judge John Kimberly Jensen, http://centuryofaction. Kilkenny, Honorary Chair; Judge James org/index.php/main_site/Essays/woman_ Burns, Chairman; Randall Kester, President; suffrage_in_oregon (accessed July 24, 2012). Manley Strayer, Vice President; Elizabeth 7. Nancy Woloch, Muller v. Oregon: Buehler, Treasurer; Susan Graber, Corporate A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Secretary; and Robert M. Christ, Executive Bedford Books, 1996), 54–55. Secretary. In addition to the District Court, 8. Horace W. Fuller, ed., The Green the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court, United Bag: A Useless But Entertaining Magazine States Attorney’s Office, U.S. Marshals, and for Lawyers, vol. 2, covering the year 1890 other specialized offices and courts comprise (Boston: The Boston Book Company), the entirety of Oregon’s District Court. There available at http://wlh.law.stanford.edu/wp- are ninety-four federal judicial districts, in content/uploads/2011/01/greenbag-vol2-1890 the United States (including the District of (accessed July 24, 2012); Women’s Legal Columbia and Puerto Rico) and three U.S. History available at http://wlh.law.stanford. territories — the Virgin Islands, Guam, and edu/ (accessed July 24, 2012). the Northern Mariana Islands. 9. Helen Althaus, interviewed by Mary 3. This program began as collaboration Ellen Farr, SR 1252, 1995, 157–58, OHS between the USDCHS and OHS, and has Research Library [hereafter OHS]. Jean continued since the closure of the OHS Oral Lagerquist Lewis (1914–1991) was the first History Department in 2004 with generous woman appointed to the Multnomah County funding from the Attorney Admissions Circuit Court after a serving in the Oregon Fund and the U.S. District Court of Oregon House and Senate. She was instrumental Historical Society. in developing procedures and an approach 4. American Bar Association, “First Year from the bench that transformed juvenile and Total J.D. Enrollment by Gender 1947– justice and domestic relations cases. 2011,” available at http://www.americanbar. 10. Ibid, 14, 16.

 OHQ vol. 113, no. 3 11. Helen Frye, interviewed by Linda the act prohibits employment discrimination Brody, March 19, 1981, 14, OHS. based on race, sex, national origin, or 12. Ibid., 18–19. religion. 13. Ibid., 23 26. Saltveit McGraw interview, 3–4. 14. Mary L. Clark, “Carter’s 27. Ibid., 15–16. Groundbreaking Appointment of Women 28. Ibid., 16. to the Federal Bench: His Other ‘Human 29. Ibid., 23; “Women get voice in club,” Rights’ Record,” American University Journal Oregonian, February 1, 1978, 1. The Board of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 11 (2003), of Directors at the Multnomah Athletic 1131–63. Club began deliberating the issue of full 15. Beginning at age sixty-five, a judge membership for women in 1976 and finally may retire or take senior status after resolved to allow them to be full members performing fifteen years of active service as in 1978. an Article III judge, also known as the Rule 30. Kristine Olson, interviewed by of 80 (65+15 = 80). Senior judges handle Kenneth Perry, SR 11074, October 24– approximately 15 percent of the caseload of December 7, 2005, 44, OHS. the federal courts. 31. Ibid., 59. 16. Tara Watson and Melody Rose, 32. Ibid., 58. Some of the major “ ‘She Flies With Her Own Wings’: Women environmental legislation during this in the 1973 Oregon Legislative Session,” time period were: Clean Air Act (1970), Oregon Historical Quarterly 111:1 (Spring Clear Water Act (1972), Federal Insecticide, 2010): 51, 55. The eleven women were: Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (1947, Senators Betty Browne and Betty Roberts and amended 1972), and National Environmental Representatives Mary Burrows, Peg Dereli, Policy Act (1970). Olson’s legal work with Nancie Fadeley, Vera Katz, Norma Paulus, Grand Ronde leader and elder Kathryn Grace Peck, Mary Rieke, Mary Roberts, and Harrison resulted in a book on Harrison’s Pat Whiting. life: Kristine Olson, Standing Tall: The 17. Hewitt v. SAIF, 653 P.2d 970 (1982), 294 Lifeway of Kathryn Jones Harrison (Portland: Or. 33. The case was heard en banc, meaning Oregon Historical Society Press, 2005). all of the Oregon Supreme Court justices 33. Olson interview, 62. were present for the oral arguments on April 34. Susan P. Graber, interviewed by Janice 7, 1982. Roberts’s opinion was made public Dilg, December 4, 2009 – June 16, 2010, 134, on November 16, 1982. OHS. 18. Norma Petersen Paulus, interviewed 35. Ibid., 112. by Linda Dodds, SR 9065, January 14, 1982, 36. Ibid., 136. 10, OHS. 37. Olson interview, 64. 19. Ibid., 21–22. 38. Jeremiah interview, 52. 20. Velma Staples Jeremiah, interviewed 39. Ibid. by Youlee You, 1994, 47, OHS. 40. Noreen Saltveit McGraw interviewed 21. Jeremiah also was one of the first by Diane Rynerson, 2000, 22–23, OHS. associates hired by the firm who had not 41. Eliza Elkins Jones, “‘All Done As a Real graduated from an Ivy League college. Pacifist’: Manche Langley’s Recollections of 22. Jeremiah interview, 124–28. Peace and Art in America’s Mid-Twentieth 23. Barrie Herbold, interviewed by Lisa Century Far West” (M.A. Thesis, Portland Kaner, September 2001, 30, OHS. State University, 2005), 44. 24. Noreen Saltveit McGraw, interviewed 42. Katherine Huff O’Neil, interviewed by Diane Rynerson, SR 1277, June 12–23, by Patricia Wlodarczyk, November 3, 2000– 2000, 2, OHS. May 9, 2001, 128, OHS. 25. The Civil Rights Act of 1914 was 43. Ibid., 122. Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). Title VII of

Dilg, Women Lawyers and Judges in Oregon History 