Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025 - 26

FEATURE
TRUE
GRIT
Women Lawyers on
the Unfinished Work
of Shattering Barriers
By Denise Perme
T
he story of women in the legal
profession is one of perseverance
despite obstacles.
Margaret Brent, the first woman lawyer in the United States, litigated
more than 100 cases in the unstable colony of Maryland in the mid1600s.
In 1645 the Catholic colony was in crisis after Governor Leonard
Calvert fled to Virginia following a militant Protestant attack. When he
returned to power, he made Brent his executor.
Brent used her formidable negotiation skills to convince the court to
grant her power of attorney for Governor Calvert's brother, Cecil Calvert,
who ruled Maryland as Lord Baltimore from his home in England. She
sold some of Lord Baltimore's cattle to pay the soldiers who had ousted
the Protestants, quickly restoring order. However, her feat was underappreciated
by Lord Baltimore, who never forgave her for selling his livestock.
The
country's first Black woman lawyer was admitted to the District of
Columbia bar in 1872. Charlotte E. Ray graduated from Howard University's
law school at a time when both women and people of color were
largely prohibited from practicing law. Applying under the name C. E.
Ray, she may have been granted her law license because the bar admissions
committee assumed she was a man.
26 WASHINGTON LAWYER
* MARCH/APRIL 2025
JOAN ODELL, Law Offices of Joan E. Odell
In her most well-known case, Ray represented a Black woman whose
husband was abusing her, which was allowed in many states in 1875.
Against the odds, Ray litigated the case before the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia and won. Prejudice doomed her law practice, however,
and Ray was forced to return to New York to work as a teacher, one
of the few professions open to women at the time.
'SUCH AN ANOMALY'
Women lawyers in the 20th century faced less resistance than Brent and
Ray, but the road was not smooth.
Joan Odell graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in
1958, when only three percent of lawyers were women. After being
turned down by law firms in Miami because the partners' wives objected
to her hiring, Odell moved to Washington, D.C., to get a job with the federal
government.
" My professor recommended that I talk to our state senators and representatives, "
says Odell, 92, an active member of the D.C. Bar since 1974.
When she reached out to her senator, Odell recalls being told to " apply
for a job as a clerk secretary, and after I had 'proven myself,' I could apply
for an attorney's job. "
" That hurt my feelings, " Odell says. " I had a very good record from school.
It would match any man's record. "
Odell turned to her state representative, who helped her secure interviews.
She received three offers and accepted a position with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC), joining an office where she was
the only woman trial attorney among " very aggressive " male colleagues
vying for the important cases.
Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025
