Timeline Stories
All timeline stories.
Vel Phillips is the first Black judge in Wisconsin
Phillips also becomes the first female judge in Milwaukee.
Olga Bennett becomes the first woman elected to the bench in Wisconsin
Bennett runs for election to the Vernon County bench on the spur of the moment. “I just didn’t think I’d win. I only ran because I thought the voters ought to have a choice.” She added, “I do feel a woman can deal out justice as well as a man.” She becomes Wisconsin’s sole woman judge on Jan. 1, 1970.
Shirley Abrahamson and Margo Melli become UW Law School’s first tenured female professors
The University of Wisconsin Law School offers Abrahamson a professorship in tax law. She agrees on the condition that she and Assistant Professor Margo Melli receive tenure.
First two women oppose each other in oral argument before the supreme court
Shirley Abrahamson and Assistant Attorney General Betty Brown become the first two women to oppose each other in an oral argument before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The case is State v. Strickland, 27 Wis. 2d 623, 135 N.W.2d 295.
Shirley Abrahamson is the first woman lawyer hired by a private firm in Madison
Abrahamson earns her doctorate in American legal history, is admitted to the Wisconsin bar, and becomes the first woman lawyer hired by a private firm in Madison. Within a year, she becomes a named partner.
Shirley Abrahamson is valedictorian of law school class
Abrahamson graduates valedictorian of her law school class and learns that Indianapolis firms will not employ a woman lawyer. She and her husband move to Madison where she pursues a doctorate in legal history and he works on a post doctorate in zoology.
Shirley Schlanger graduates from NYU and marries Seymour Abrahamson
Schlanger, age 19, graduates from New York University, marries Seymour Abrahamson, and begins her legal education at Indiana University.
Shirley Schlanger graduates from high school
Schlanger graduates from Hunter College High School at age 16 and begins college at New York University.