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Interview with Kathryn Emmett

IntervieweeInterview with Kathryn Emmett American

InterviewerInterviewed by Emily Golub American

InterviewerInterviewed by Beth Golub American

Date2016 November 3

DimensionsDuration: 8 Minutes, 42 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation

DescriptionOral history interview with Kathryn Emmett who was interviewed by Emily Golub and Beth Golub on November 3, 2016 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.

- Topics Discussed:

- Family Life & Blacklisting: Kathryn Emmett discusses her family's background in theater. Her mother, Kim Hunter, an actress, and her father, Robert Emmett, an actor and dancer, were involved in the theater. Her mother was blacklisted, which led her father to become a writer for the theater.

- Early Decision to Become a Lawyer : Kathryn decided to go to law school around her early years of college. She was engaged in social issues as a child and concerned about the civil rights movement, which motivated her interest in law.

- Early Life: She grew up in New York City, Greenwich Village. In high school at Friends Seminary, she became uncomfortable with the lack of Black students and worked to change it. As a teenager, she worked as an usher at the Cherry Lane Theatre and was involved in political work, including chairing High School Students for Kennedy in New York during the Kennedy campaign.

- College Experience: She attended Radcliffe College earning a Harvard degree. She initially majored in Architecture but switched to history and then to Social Relations. While in college, she participated in theater and the Harvard Review magazine.

- Gender Discrimination: Women at Radcliffe faced restrictions on behavior and dress. There were no sports teams for women.

- Law School: Kathryn entered Yale Law School in 1966. In her class of about 170 students, there were only approximately seven women. The private Yale club, Mory's, where law firms interviewed, did not admit women, creating a discriminatory environment. She dropped out after a year and a half because she couldn't see a suitable career path in large firms. She then worked for Katie Roraback, a lawyer in New Haven who represented social activists and was involved in the Griswold case. This experience motivated her to return to law school after half a year. She graduated in 1970.

- Early Legal Career: After law school, Kathryn worked for Koskoff, Koskoff, Rutkin, and Bieder in Bridgeport. She worked on the appeal of Lonnie McLucas, who was convicted in the Black Panthers trial. She also became involved in two formative cases: challenging Mory's exclusion of women and challenging Connecticut's anti-abortion statutes.
She argued most of the legal arguments and was involved in developing the legal theories, including the trimester formulation adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.

- Establishing Her Own Practice : Kathryn left the Koskoff office in 1976 and opened her own practice in Stamford. She continued to do various types of trial work, primarily special public defender work, civil rights cases, medical malpractice, and employment discrimination cases.

Object number2024.38.41a-b

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)