Interview with Patricia R. Kaplan
IntervieweeInterview with
Patricia R. Kaplan
American, 1940 - 2021
InterviewerInterviewed by
Mary Christy Fisher
American
Date2017 January 4
DimensionsDuration: 8 Minutes, 59 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Patricia R. Kaplan who was interviewed by Mary Christy Fisher on January 4, 2017 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Born in 1940, Pat Kaplan was raised in Long Island, where she was told that women's futures were to get married and have children. However, she was also expected to have a career as a nurse, secretary, or teacher as a fallback.
- College: Pat Kaplan majored in theatre at Barnard College and was the first stage manager for the musical "The Fantasticks." She later became an early childhood education teacher, then a stay-at-home mother for ten years.
- Path to Law School: In the early 1970s, Pat became involved with the League of Women Voters in Branford, Connecticut, and helped start the town's first state-funded daycare center. Her work on this project, along with being inspired by trials she observed, including the Black Panther trial, led her to apply to law school.
- Law School: At age 35, she was accepted to the University of Connecticut School of Law. While in law school, she worked for the public defenders and for New Haven Legal Assistance, which became her career goal.
- Career at Valley Legal Assistance: After graduation, Pat was hired as a VISTA attorney and was tasked with developing the Valley Legal Assistance office, where she worked from 1978 to 1991. While there, she and attorney Bennett Pudlin helped start the domestic violence program, The Umbrella, and worked on cases involving discrimination and family law.
- New Haven Legal Assistance Director: In September 1991, she became the first woman director of New Haven Legal Assistance, a position she held for 21 years.
- Family Reactions: Pat's parents responded to her becoming a lawyer by using "gender-humor," which she found upsetting, and her first husband felt threatened by her career, which contributed to the end of their marriage.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Life: Born in 1940, Pat Kaplan was raised in Long Island, where she was told that women's futures were to get married and have children. However, she was also expected to have a career as a nurse, secretary, or teacher as a fallback.
- College: Pat Kaplan majored in theatre at Barnard College and was the first stage manager for the musical "The Fantasticks." She later became an early childhood education teacher, then a stay-at-home mother for ten years.
- Path to Law School: In the early 1970s, Pat became involved with the League of Women Voters in Branford, Connecticut, and helped start the town's first state-funded daycare center. Her work on this project, along with being inspired by trials she observed, including the Black Panther trial, led her to apply to law school.
- Law School: At age 35, she was accepted to the University of Connecticut School of Law. While in law school, she worked for the public defenders and for New Haven Legal Assistance, which became her career goal.
- Career at Valley Legal Assistance: After graduation, Pat was hired as a VISTA attorney and was tasked with developing the Valley Legal Assistance office, where she worked from 1978 to 1991. While there, she and attorney Bennett Pudlin helped start the domestic violence program, The Umbrella, and worked on cases involving discrimination and family law.
- New Haven Legal Assistance Director: In September 1991, she became the first woman director of New Haven Legal Assistance, a position she held for 21 years.
- Family Reactions: Pat's parents responded to her becoming a lawyer by using "gender-humor," which she found upsetting, and her first husband felt threatened by her career, which contributed to the end of their marriage.
Object number2024.38.57a-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)
Subject Terms
- Women
- Lawyers
- Women lawyers
- Oral history
- Interview films
- Interview transcripts
- Interviews
- Oral narratives
- Attorneys
- Gender roles
- Musical performances
- Theaters
- Law schools
- League of Women Voters of Connecticut
- Branford (Conn.)
- Daycare
- Black Panther Party
- University of Connecticut
- Violence
- New Haven (Conn.)
- Divorce
- Family
- Education
- Teachers
- Children
- Motherhood
- Public defenders
- New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc. (NHLAA)
- Victims of domestic violence and abuse
- Victims of family violence
- Discrimination
- Marriage
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
On View
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