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Interview with Ellen B. Lubell

IntervieweeInterview with Ellen B. Lubell American, born 1947

InterviewerInterviewed by Joseph M. Shortall American

Date2004 August 11

DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation

DescriptionOral history interview with Ellen B. Lubell who was interviewed by Judge Joseph M. Shortall on August 11, 2004 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.

Topic Discussion:

- Personal Background: Ellen Bloom Lubell was born in October 1947 in New York. Her father was a freelance writer who wrote "The Trouble with Lawyers," and her mother was a trained therapist. Her current husband is a lawyer.

- Interest in Law: Ellen developed an interest in law after deciding against teaching English or French.

- Education: She attended public school in Great Neck, NYU for undergraduate studies (1965-1969), and the University of Connecticut Law School, choosing UConn due to her husband working in New Haven and not getting into Yale. At NYU, she majored in English and French.

- Law School Experience: Ellen married the summer she graduated college and went directly to law school. Her law school class had eight women out of 150 students. She participated in the Legal Clinic in her last year.

- Notable Classmates: Anne Dranginis who is now an Appellate Court Judge.

- Discrimination and Sexism: She faced discouraging comments from male classmates and professors during the Vietnam War, and sexist remarks from professors regarding her marriage and domestic responsibilities.

- U.S. invasion of Cambodia, 1970.

- Law School and Public Defender Role: Ellen passed the Connecticut Bar. She initially wanted to be a Public Defender. She started working in New Haven in 1972 as an Assistant Public Defender, a position she held for three years, and then in Danbury for eight years until 1981. She handled various cases, including felonies, and encountered resistance from state attorneys and court clerks.

- Transition to Private Practice: In 1981, she left public defender work and entered private practice in Westport, Connecticut. She initially looked for criminal defense work but ended up in a high-end divorce practice.

Object number2024.38.20a-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)