Interview with Elaine S. Amendola
IntervieweeInterview with
Elaine S. Amendola
American, 1935 - 2022
InterviewerInterviewed by
Jacob D. Zeldes
American, 1930 - 2013
Date2010 September 30
DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes, 37 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Elaine S. Amendola who was interviewed by Jack D. Zeldes on September 30, 2010 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Elaine was born in 1935, New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Orange, Connecticut. Her father was a contractor in Derby, and her mother was a registered nurse. She attended Orange Center School and Hill House High School in New Haven.
- College Education: Elaine attended Wellesley College, majoring in mathematics. She was actively involved in equestrian competitions.
- Marriage to Joseph Crehore: She met Joseph Crehore, a Harvard student and athlete, whom she married in 1958, after graduating college in 1956.
- Early Professional Experiences: She was offered a job at IBM in New York, but sought work closer to home. She started the first Computer Programming Department at Sikorsky Aircraft in East Hartford. She and her husband moved to Arizona where she worked for a ballistics engineering firm, and then to Wichita, Kansas, where she worked for Boeing in Industrial Engineering.
- Transition to Law School: In 1959, while in Kansas, Elaine decided to take the law school aptitude test (LSAT), performing very well. She faced rejections from Harvard, Columbia, and Wharton business schools as a woman. She applied to Yale Law School but was rejected by Dean Tate because she was a married woman. She then applied to and was accepted by the University of Connecticut Law School, where she was the only woman in the entire law school.
- Husband's Death: Joe was tragically killed in a flying accident in March 1962. This event profoundly impacted her life but she still passed the Bar Exam.
- Gender Discrimination in Job Search: She faced significant challenges finding a job as a woman lawyer, with some interview rooms having "No women interviewed" signs, and the Bar Committee was reportedly rude to her as a widow.
- Early Legal Career: She remained in Connecticut, active in national horse competitions. She was eventually hired by David Goldstein at Goldstein and Peck, a litigation law firm in Bridgeport, Connecticut, after being referred by Professor Rodell to Jack Zeldes (the interviewer). At Goldstein and Peck, she handled a variety of cases, including criminal defense, will contests, Appellate writing, and federal litigation such as trademark cases.
- Remarriage, Family, and Firm Formation: Elaine remarried a football coach named Buddy Amendola. They moved to Storrs, Connecticut, when Buddy accepted a job at the University of Connecticut, but Elaine continued to work at Goldstein and Peck. They later moved back to Orange, Connecticut, and she had two children. In 1970, she and others left to form their own firm, Zeldes, Needle and Cooper, in 1971, where she stayed until 1997.
- Current Practice and Bar Association Involvement: Since 1997, Elaine has been practicing domestic relations (family law) with her daughter in Fairfield. She's been involved in the Executive Committee of the Criminal Justice Section and the Family Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. She also became active in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
- Notable Cases: She also observed the Bobby Seale trial (Black Panther case) in New Haven. She described an interesting case where she represented James Peter Pardue, a serial killer, while Koskoff represented his wife.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Elaine was born in 1935, New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Orange, Connecticut. Her father was a contractor in Derby, and her mother was a registered nurse. She attended Orange Center School and Hill House High School in New Haven.
- College Education: Elaine attended Wellesley College, majoring in mathematics. She was actively involved in equestrian competitions.
- Marriage to Joseph Crehore: She met Joseph Crehore, a Harvard student and athlete, whom she married in 1958, after graduating college in 1956.
- Early Professional Experiences: She was offered a job at IBM in New York, but sought work closer to home. She started the first Computer Programming Department at Sikorsky Aircraft in East Hartford. She and her husband moved to Arizona where she worked for a ballistics engineering firm, and then to Wichita, Kansas, where she worked for Boeing in Industrial Engineering.
- Transition to Law School: In 1959, while in Kansas, Elaine decided to take the law school aptitude test (LSAT), performing very well. She faced rejections from Harvard, Columbia, and Wharton business schools as a woman. She applied to Yale Law School but was rejected by Dean Tate because she was a married woman. She then applied to and was accepted by the University of Connecticut Law School, where she was the only woman in the entire law school.
- Husband's Death: Joe was tragically killed in a flying accident in March 1962. This event profoundly impacted her life but she still passed the Bar Exam.
- Gender Discrimination in Job Search: She faced significant challenges finding a job as a woman lawyer, with some interview rooms having "No women interviewed" signs, and the Bar Committee was reportedly rude to her as a widow.
- Early Legal Career: She remained in Connecticut, active in national horse competitions. She was eventually hired by David Goldstein at Goldstein and Peck, a litigation law firm in Bridgeport, Connecticut, after being referred by Professor Rodell to Jack Zeldes (the interviewer). At Goldstein and Peck, she handled a variety of cases, including criminal defense, will contests, Appellate writing, and federal litigation such as trademark cases.
- Remarriage, Family, and Firm Formation: Elaine remarried a football coach named Buddy Amendola. They moved to Storrs, Connecticut, when Buddy accepted a job at the University of Connecticut, but Elaine continued to work at Goldstein and Peck. They later moved back to Orange, Connecticut, and she had two children. In 1970, she and others left to form their own firm, Zeldes, Needle and Cooper, in 1971, where she stayed until 1997.
- Current Practice and Bar Association Involvement: Since 1997, Elaine has been practicing domestic relations (family law) with her daughter in Fairfield. She's been involved in the Executive Committee of the Criminal Justice Section and the Family Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. She also became active in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
- Notable Cases: She also observed the Bobby Seale trial (Black Panther case) in New Haven. She described an interesting case where she represented James Peter Pardue, a serial killer, while Koskoff represented his wife.
Object number2024.38.34a-e
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
- New Haven (Conn.)
- Orange (Conn.)
- Nurses
- Derby (Conn.)
- Horses
- New York (N.Y.)
- Computers
- East Hartford (Conn.)
- Law schools
- Yale University
- Death
- Airplanes
- Discrimination
- University of Connecticut
- Fairfield (Conn.)
- Seale, Bobby, 1936-
- Black Panther Party
- Family
- Education
- Marriage
- Crime
- Sikorsky Aircraft (Firm)
- Engineering
- Widows
- Law firms
- Children
- Gender roles
- Horseback riding
- United States v. Pardue (1973)
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
On View
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