When I came to Penn in the Fall of 1956, it was my first experience living in a big city and being away from home (in Hyattsville, Maryland) for any length of time.
From the first days I remember: a reception at President Gaylord Harnwell’s home (I had never met anyone named Gaylord either); Dean R. Jean Brownlee telling us that Penn was especially concerned for the education of women; and meeting Rosemary (Bunny) Yaecker, who would be my roommate and life-long friend.
My Penn memories are deeply interwoven with collegiate debate. I especially remember partnership with Edward Cohen for two years and that we won many tournaments and trophies, though probably not as many as I recall. Debate turned out to be the perfect training ground for law school, and at Yale I won the prize for the best moot court presentation in the class.
After Penn and law school: I practiced criminal defense law in the District of Columbia, first with Edward Bennett Williams, and then with Legal Aid, which became the Public Defender Service, and from 1968-1972, I was the first Director of PDS.
In 1972, I became a professor at Stanford Law School, the first woman appointed to the regular faculty. Until retiring in 2005, I taught courses in criminal and civil procedure, sex discrimination law, and women’s legal history. On leave from Stanford, I served as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Department of Justice in the Carter administration.
Teaching wonderful students during a period of considerable change in the legal profession has been a good life. I have also enjoyed scholarship, especially work on the life of a pioneer in the law, who conceived the idea of the public defender. Woman Lawyer: the Trials of Clara Foltz is forthcoming this year from the Stanford Press.
I have been married to fellow Stanford Law Professor, Tom Grey, for more than thirty years. He too has retired, and spends his creative energy on bird photography now. Here is a picture of us at a farmer’s market with our grandchild, Dinah Grey Luomanen (7).
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