Interview with Judge Antoinette L. Dupont
IntervieweeInterview with
Antoinette L. Dupont
American, 1929 - 2020
InterviewerInterviewed by
Kate Stith
American
Date2000 October 25
DimensionsDuration (Part 1): 55 Minutes, 28 Seconds
Duration (Part 2): 58 Minutes, 50 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 54 Minutes, 18 Seconds
Duration (Part 2): 58 Minutes, 50 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 54 Minutes, 18 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Judge Antoinette L. Dupont who was interviewed by Kate Stith on October 25, 2000 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Disscused:
- Early Life: Antoinette Dupont was born in New York City on January 10, 1929. She grew up in New London, Connecticut. Her father was a pharmacist, and her mother was a secretary to a Broadway producer.
- Education: She attended public schools in New London and graduated from Williams Memorial Institute, an all-girls high school. She then attended Brown University. She majored in political science.
- Law School: She decided to go to law school during the summer of 1948 while participating in "Students in Government" in Washington D.C., where she worked for the Smithsonian Institute and witnessed a special session of Congress called by President Truman.
- Harvard Law School: She attended Harvard Law School, starting in 1951, as part of the second class of women admitted. There were about 19 women out of 525 students in her class, with around 10 graduating.
- Dean Erwin Griswold and his wife Harriet.
- Family: Returned to New London, Connecticut. She married Ralph Dupont, who she knew from Brown University, and they had three children.
- Private Practice: She worked at various firms in New London, including Suisman Shapiro & Wool, where she practiced general civil practice, primarily plaintiffs' litigation.
- Dupont and Dupont: She formed her own law firm with her husband around 1963.
- Political and Community Involvement: She ran for and won a seat on the Board of Education in New London.
- League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women.
- Legacy Organization: provided legal services for the poor in the early sixties.
- Judicial Appointment: She was appointed a judge to the Court of Common Pleas in 1977 by Governor Ella Grasso, becoming the first woman to be appointed from southeastern Connecticut. The Court of Common Pleas later merged into the Superior Court in 1978.
Topics Disscused:
- Early Life: Antoinette Dupont was born in New York City on January 10, 1929. She grew up in New London, Connecticut. Her father was a pharmacist, and her mother was a secretary to a Broadway producer.
- Education: She attended public schools in New London and graduated from Williams Memorial Institute, an all-girls high school. She then attended Brown University. She majored in political science.
- Law School: She decided to go to law school during the summer of 1948 while participating in "Students in Government" in Washington D.C., where she worked for the Smithsonian Institute and witnessed a special session of Congress called by President Truman.
- Harvard Law School: She attended Harvard Law School, starting in 1951, as part of the second class of women admitted. There were about 19 women out of 525 students in her class, with around 10 graduating.
- Dean Erwin Griswold and his wife Harriet.
- Family: Returned to New London, Connecticut. She married Ralph Dupont, who she knew from Brown University, and they had three children.
- Private Practice: She worked at various firms in New London, including Suisman Shapiro & Wool, where she practiced general civil practice, primarily plaintiffs' litigation.
- Dupont and Dupont: She formed her own law firm with her husband around 1963.
- Political and Community Involvement: She ran for and won a seat on the Board of Education in New London.
- League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women.
- Legacy Organization: provided legal services for the poor in the early sixties.
- Judicial Appointment: She was appointed a judge to the Court of Common Pleas in 1977 by Governor Ella Grasso, becoming the first woman to be appointed from southeastern Connecticut. The Court of Common Pleas later merged into the Superior Court in 1978.
Object number2024.38.8a-n
NotesProject Overview: At the turn of the 20th century, other than Mary Hall, women lawyers were virtually unknown in Connecticut. By contrast, at the turn of the 21st century, law schools were enrolling roughly the same number of women as men. Since their earliest time at the bar, women have become leaders in all areas of the profession at a pace out of all proportion to their brief history and number. In 1999, the Fellows of the Connecticut Bar Foundation initiated the Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project. Within the framework of this dynamic project, the Fellows have been creating a permanent video, audio, and photographic historical record of milestone achievements of women as they have become more visible and achieved prominence in the field of law. In 2019, a leadership donation of $20,000 from the law firm of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey enabled the project to significantly broaden its scope and plan for the future.
Through its first two phases, the project worked with award-winning documentarian Karyl Evans and attorney/photographer Isabel Chenoweth to produce fifty-eight oral history interviews with outstanding female attorneys and 118 portraits of women in the Connecticut judiciary.
The oral history interviews have collected the stories of women whose ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence dismantled barriers that historically prevented women from pursuing careers in the law. Connecticut has benefited from the efforts of these “pioneers” as they enriched the legal profession by joining the ranks of their male peers and paved the way for more women to join the profession. (Source: Connecticut Bar Foundation)
Subject Terms
- Women
- Lawyers
- Women lawyers
- Oral history
- Interview films
- Interview transcripts
- Interviews
- Oral narratives
- Attorneys
- Law and order
- Law schools
- New York (N.Y.)
- New London (Conn.)
- Pharmacists
- Washington (D.C.)
- Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
- League of Women Voters of Connecticut
- Education
- Harvard University
- Law firms
- Judges
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
On View
Not on view