Barbara Babcock Woman Lawyer The Trials of Clara

Authors: Rosemary Auchmuty

Publish Date: 2011/11/01

Volume: 19, Issue: 3, Pages: 289-291

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Abstract

Clara Foltz was the first woman admitted to the California Bar—but she was much more than this She was a suffragist and law reformer a single mother of five and though denied a college education a public intellectual of distinction and fame Her greatest achievement according to her biographer was promoting the role of public defender—a stateprovided lawyer for defendants who could not afford to pay for one Although this was not introduced until 30 years after her death it was first urged by Foltz who had identified the need after observing shoddy representation of poor people and unchecked bullying by prosecutors in many criminal trials For this alone Foltz deserves to be restored to the public recordThe book’s value to feminist legal scholars lies in the tracing of a life complicated by the structural inequalities facing women of her time and place and still often of ours—their vulnerability in relationships their responsibility for children discrimination in the

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