Emma Gillett
Emma Gillett | |
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LLB, LLM ) |
Emma Millinda Gillett (July 30, 1852 – January 23, 1927) was an American lawyer and
Early background
Gillett was born on July 30, 1852, in
After the death of her mother, Gillett's role in the settlement of her estate sparked an interest in law, as well as being a better paying profession. Encouraged by the news of
Early career
After admission to the bar, she formed a partnership with Watson J. Newton, which continued until the death of Newton in 1913.[citation needed] At one time she was connected with the District Title Insurance Company and was later Vice President of the Realty Appraisal & Title Company.
Educational career
During this time, her colleague and friend, Ellen Spencer Mussey, sought her assistance in the education of women in the field of law. Mussey had been approached in 1895 by Delia Sheldon Jackson, an aspiring attorney, to apprentice her as a student of law. Realizing both the scope of the task and the significance of the opportunity, Mussey sought out the assistance of Gillett. The two opened the first session of the Woman's Law Class on February 1, 1896. The class had an enrollment of three: Jackson and two other women, Nanette Paul and Helen Malcolm.
Within a few years, the program had expanded and several prominent Washington, D.C., attorneys were brought in for assistance. Although Mussey and Gillett had not initially aspired to establish an independent law school, when Columbian College (now George Washington University) refused their request to take on the women they had educated for their final year of education—on grounds that "women did not have the mentality for law"—the two decided to establish a co-educational law school specifically open to women.
Thus, in April 1898, the
Accomplishments
Gillett helped in the establishment of a women's club, "The Wimondaughsis", in Washington, D.C. With Ellen Spencer Mussey, her colleague and co-founder of the Washington College of Law, Gillett founded the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia. Responding to the written invitation issued by Mussey, calling an initial meeting of "an association of women lawyers in the District of Columbia" on May 17, 1917, 29 other women lawyers joined Gillett and Mussey as charter members of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia. At that time, only New York City, Chicago, and Omaha had organized women's bar associations.[4]
Gillett held many additional roles, including Vice President for the District of Columbia of the American Bar Association in 1922; President of the State Suffrage Association of the District; President of the Women's Bar Association in 1921, and at the time of her death was Dean Emeritus of the Washington College of Law and Chairman of the Legal Branch of the National Woman's Party.
Death
Gillett died on January 23, 1927,[3] after contracting pneumonia while confined to her bed after breaking her hip the previous October.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Former Deans: Emma Millinda Gillett". American University Washington College of Law. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
- ISBN 9780472103058.
- ^
- ^ "WBADC". www.wbadc.org. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2019.