Interview with Judge Sheila M. Hennessey
IntervieweeInterview with
Sheila M. Hennessey
American, born 1937
InterviewerInterviewed by
Catherine A. Mohan
American
Date2005 April 13
DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 18 Minutes
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Judge Sheila M. Hennessey who was interviewed by Catherine A. Mohan on April 13, 2005 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topic Discussed:
- Early Life: Sheila McCue Hennessey, born August 30, 1937, grew up in Middletown, Connecticut, where her father was a mechanic and her mother a homemaker.
- Early School: She attended St. John's School and Woodrow Wilson High School in Middletown.
- College Education: Sheila attended Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, a small Catholic women's college, and graduated in 1958. She majored in political science and was the only one in her class with that major. The college was run by Dominican nuns and fathers who emphasized social responsibility.
- Boston College Law School : Her interest in law stemmed from her political science background and participation in mock legislative sessions. Sheila Hennessey was the first lawyer in her family. She went directly to Boston College Law School, graduating in 1961. She was also on the Law Review.
- Marriage: During law school, she became engaged to Edward Hennessey, who was in her class. They graduated in June 1961 and married in August 1961.
- Post-Grad: She took the Connecticut Bar exam at Yale Law School in Summer 1961, and received results in August. She took a two-day Bar review course taught by Bill and Charles Moeller in Hartford.
- Early Career: After passing the Bar, she started working in the Legal Department of Connecticut General Life Insurance Company in Bloomfield. She was the first woman on their legal staff.
- Family Life and Return to Work: Her first child was born in August 1962. She had four sons and chose to stay home and raise them. She later opened a general practice law office in an addition to her home in Wethersfield.
- Reflections on Women in the Legal Profession: Sheila discusses the evolving expectations for women balancing family and careers, admiring the current generation, including her three sons who are lawyers.
- Technology: Sheila reflects on significant technological changes, such as the shift from dictation to computers, email, and cell phones, noting her personal adjustment to these advancements in her later career, particularly at the Probate Court.
- Ethical Issues
- Probate Judge Tenure.
Topic Discussed:
- Early Life: Sheila McCue Hennessey, born August 30, 1937, grew up in Middletown, Connecticut, where her father was a mechanic and her mother a homemaker.
- Early School: She attended St. John's School and Woodrow Wilson High School in Middletown.
- College Education: Sheila attended Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, a small Catholic women's college, and graduated in 1958. She majored in political science and was the only one in her class with that major. The college was run by Dominican nuns and fathers who emphasized social responsibility.
- Boston College Law School : Her interest in law stemmed from her political science background and participation in mock legislative sessions. Sheila Hennessey was the first lawyer in her family. She went directly to Boston College Law School, graduating in 1961. She was also on the Law Review.
- Marriage: During law school, she became engaged to Edward Hennessey, who was in her class. They graduated in June 1961 and married in August 1961.
- Post-Grad: She took the Connecticut Bar exam at Yale Law School in Summer 1961, and received results in August. She took a two-day Bar review course taught by Bill and Charles Moeller in Hartford.
- Early Career: After passing the Bar, she started working in the Legal Department of Connecticut General Life Insurance Company in Bloomfield. She was the first woman on their legal staff.
- Family Life and Return to Work: Her first child was born in August 1962. She had four sons and chose to stay home and raise them. She later opened a general practice law office in an addition to her home in Wethersfield.
- Reflections on Women in the Legal Profession: Sheila discusses the evolving expectations for women balancing family and careers, admiring the current generation, including her three sons who are lawyers.
- Technology: Sheila reflects on significant technological changes, such as the shift from dictation to computers, email, and cell phones, noting her personal adjustment to these advancements in her later career, particularly at the Probate Court.
- Ethical Issues
- Probate Judge Tenure.
Object number2024.38.24a-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
- Middletown (Conn.)
- New Haven (Conn.)
- Catholicism
- Nuns
- Boston (Mass.)
- Schools
- Law schools
- Yale University
- Hartford (Conn.)
- Insurance companies
- Bloomfield (Conn.)
- Wethersfield (Conn.)
- Technology
- Family
- Education
- Children
- Marriage
- Motherhood
- Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
- Law firms
- Judges
- Probate courts
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
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