Document Not Available

Interview with Magistrate Katherine Y. Hutchinson

IntervieweeInterview with Katherine Y. Hutchinson American, born 1936

InterviewerInterviewed by Barbara M. Quinn American

Date2004 July 13

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation

DescriptionOral history interview with Magistrate Katherine Y. Hutchinson who was interviewed by Judge Barbara M. Quinn on July 13, 2004 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.

Topics Discussed:

- Background: Katherine Yeomans Hutchinson was born on September 1, 1936, in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up in Andover. Her father was an attorney at Spellasy and Yeomans in Hartford and later became the Clerk of the Courts for Tolland County.

- Early Interests and Education: Katherine developed an early interest in law, frequently accompanying her father to his office and court from around age six. She attended Windham High School.

- College: She attended Skidmore College for two years, then transferred to the University of Connecticut to enter their combined program for law school.

- Law School Experience: She attended the University of Connecticut Law School from 1957 until 1960, graduating in 1960. She was married at the end of her first year of law school. Initially, five women started in her law school class, but only two finished. She noted initial skepticism from some male classmates about women in law school.

- Bar Exam: She took the Bar Exam in June 1960 and was sworn in around August 1960. She recalls almost being denied entry to the swearing-in room because she was a woman.

- Early Career and Private Practice: After graduating in 1960, she took a part-time job at a one-man firm in Rockville with Edwin Lavitt. She became full-time three years later. She served as Town Attorney for Andover for 24 years, which involved drafting ordinances and handling condemnations, among other diverse legal areas. She generally continued to do the same type of general practice work until leaving private practice in 1984.

- Impact of Technology: She is positive about it as technology has made the legal practice more efficient.

Object number2024.38.18a-f

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)