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Interview with Claudine Siegel

IntervieweeInterview with Claudine Siegel 1935 - 2020

InterviewerInterviewed by Raymond R. Norko American, 1943 - 2019

Date2001 April 25

DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes, 5 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation

DescriptionOral history interview with Claudine Siegel who was interviewed by Judge Raymond R. Norko on April 25, 2001 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.

Topics Discussed:

- Early Life: Claudine Siegel was born on May 23, 1935, in Antwerp, Belgium. Her father was born in Poland and moved to Belgium at nine months old.

- WWII: On May 10, 1940, her family fled Belgium as the Nazis marched in, driving to France. The family continued moving through France, eventually reaching the Spanish/French Frontier, and entering Spain. Her father was placed in a detention camp for about ten months as Poland had fallen. Her mother worked to get her father released, and they eventually traveled to Portugal, then to the United States in 1941.

- Arrival to USA: Upon arriving in the U.S., they lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. Her father, previously a hosiery manufacturer in Antwerp, became a diamond dealer in New York. Her mother was a housewife.

- Early Education: Claudine Siegel attended public school in New York City. For high school, she attended Hunter High. While in high school, Claudine worked odd jobs like babysitting, being a secretary, and a camp counselor. She had Hebrew School, piano, art, and French lessons.

- College and Early Career: She received a New York State scholarship, which enabled her to attend Barnard College. She majored in History/Sociology and graduated in February 1956. She decided to go to law school after her graduation. She joined a firm located in a mansion on Madison and 5th Avenue, New York, with Mr. Amen and Mr. Weisman as partners. She stayed at this firm for three years, primarily working on anti-trust cases, specifically for the Carvel Corporation. She left the firm because she became pregnant and the firm had a rule against women working while pregnant.

- Later Career and Life: After leaving the law firm, she stayed home to raise her children. She pursued a Master's in Early Childhood Education at Columbia Teacher's College. She became involved in real estate, eventually becoming a partner in a firm that was later sold to W.R. Grace. She later taught at a Greenwich school in Connecticut, teaching in a program for emotionally disturbed children.

Object number2024.38.15a-i

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)