Interview with Rhoda Loeb
IntervieweeInterview with
Rhoda Loeb
American, 1921 - 2022
InterviewerInterviewed by
Marjorie Wilder
American, 1944 - 2013
Date2004 February 25
DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes, 51 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Rhoda Loeb who was interviewed by Marjorie Wilder on February 25, 2004 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Rhoda Leshine Loeb was born in Branford, Connecticut on March 30, 1921. Her grandmother immigrated from Russia in 1902 with five children, opening a market in New Haven, and later a news store in Branford in 1910. Her father later started the Branford Review newspaper.
- Education: She graduated from East Haven High School and attended the University of Michigan, initially intending to pursue journalism.
- Law School: She went directly to Yale Law School, a decision influenced by her father. She graduated in 1944. At Yale, there were about six or seven women in her class. She studied labor law.
- Early Legal Career: After graduating, she sought employment on Wall Street. She joined Spence, Hodgekiss, Parker and Durier, practicing labor law.
- Antisemitism and Assault: She encountered antisemitism at one firm. She also experienced sexual harassment from a junior partner and was supported by Soya Menchakoff, who later became dean of the University of Chicago Law School and taught at Harvard Law School.
- Gender Discrimination: At 23 years old, she worked at Appellate Court in New York City where she was initially not recognized as an attorney due to being a woman. She spent just over four years at the firm. She took both the Connecticut and New York Bar exams. She faced gender discrimination in social settings, with male-only clubs and dining rooms.
- Private Practice: Upon returning to Branford, she set up her own practice in a shared office space. She became Branford's sewer counsel and town counsel, and served as a part-time town judge before the Unified Court System. Her practice continued until 1965. Personal circumstances, including an obstetrical problem and the death of a daughter, led her to work from home with family support.
- Expanded Practice: In the early 1960s, she moved her practice to New Haven, opening an office on Bradley Street. She specialized in family law and volunteered as a public defender in juvenile court, particularly for incest cases. She joined the firm Evans and Evans, which later became Evans Feldman and Boyer.
- Compensation Commissioner Appointment: In 1979, she was appointed the first woman Compensation Commissioner by Governor Ella Grasso.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Rhoda Leshine Loeb was born in Branford, Connecticut on March 30, 1921. Her grandmother immigrated from Russia in 1902 with five children, opening a market in New Haven, and later a news store in Branford in 1910. Her father later started the Branford Review newspaper.
- Education: She graduated from East Haven High School and attended the University of Michigan, initially intending to pursue journalism.
- Law School: She went directly to Yale Law School, a decision influenced by her father. She graduated in 1944. At Yale, there were about six or seven women in her class. She studied labor law.
- Early Legal Career: After graduating, she sought employment on Wall Street. She joined Spence, Hodgekiss, Parker and Durier, practicing labor law.
- Antisemitism and Assault: She encountered antisemitism at one firm. She also experienced sexual harassment from a junior partner and was supported by Soya Menchakoff, who later became dean of the University of Chicago Law School and taught at Harvard Law School.
- Gender Discrimination: At 23 years old, she worked at Appellate Court in New York City where she was initially not recognized as an attorney due to being a woman. She spent just over four years at the firm. She took both the Connecticut and New York Bar exams. She faced gender discrimination in social settings, with male-only clubs and dining rooms.
- Private Practice: Upon returning to Branford, she set up her own practice in a shared office space. She became Branford's sewer counsel and town counsel, and served as a part-time town judge before the Unified Court System. Her practice continued until 1965. Personal circumstances, including an obstetrical problem and the death of a daughter, led her to work from home with family support.
- Expanded Practice: In the early 1960s, she moved her practice to New Haven, opening an office on Bradley Street. She specialized in family law and volunteered as a public defender in juvenile court, particularly for incest cases. She joined the firm Evans and Evans, which later became Evans Feldman and Boyer.
- Compensation Commissioner Appointment: In 1979, she was appointed the first woman Compensation Commissioner by Governor Ella Grasso.
Object number2024.38.16a-j
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
- Branford (Conn.)
- Newspapers
- Newspaper editors
- East Haven (Conn.)
- Law schools
- Discrimination
- New York (N.Y.)
- New Haven (Conn.)
- Russia
- Immigrants
- Yale University
- Family
- Education
- Labor law
- Jewish women
- Jewish people
- Antisemitism
- Sexual harassment
- Workplace sexual harassment
- Law firms
- Children
- Juvenile courts
- Judges
- Public defenders
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
On View
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