Gordon, Laura de Force
1838 - 1907

Details
Alias: Laura de Force
Born: 8/17/1838 in Erie County, Pennsylvania
Died: 4/5/1907
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Professional Facts

Practice Area:
Criminal Law
Family Law
Profession:
Criminal Law - mostly murder cases
Family Law
Regions and States of Practice:
CA, West
Positions During Her Career:
Key figure in establishing California State Woman Suffrage Society (1870) and became President (1884-1894)
Published the Stockton Weekly Leader (1872-1877) and wrote for other newspapers
Private practitioner (1880s-1901)
Speaker for the Democratic Control Committee (1888)
Firsts:
Presented first public woman suffrage speech in California (1868)
Appeal for women's suffrage to California legislature (1870)
Woman to publish a newspaper (1872)
Woman to defend a murder suspect (1880)


Further Research Materials

References:
Barbara Babcock, Alma Mater: Clara Foltz and Hastings College of the Law, 21 Hastings Women's Law Journal 99 (2010)
Roger K. Newman (Editor), Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law. Yale University Press (May 26, 2009)
Women Defenders in the West
Barbara Allen Babcock, Women Defenders in the West, University of Nevada Law Journal 1 (2001)
150th Anniversary of the Supreme Court
Barbara Allen Babcock, 150th Anniversary of the Supreme Court, 22 Official California Reports 4th 1275 - 79 (February 8, 2000)
American National Biography Online: "Gordon, Laura de Force"
Lynn Downey. In American National Biography Online: "Gordon, Laura de Force". Oxford University Press (February 2000), available at http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00281.html
The First Women Members of the Supreme Court Bar, 1879 - 1900
Mary L. Clark, The First Women Members of the Supreme Court Bar, 1879-1900, 36 San Diego Law Review 87 (1999)
Book Review: Feminist Lawyers
Barbara Allen Babcock, Book Review: Feminist Lawyers, 50 Stanford Law Review 1689 (May 1998)
Making History: Lelia Robinson's Index to American Women Lawyers
Barbara Allen Babcock, Making History: Lelia Robinson's Index to American Women Lawyers. Stanford Law School (July 1998)
The Founding of the Washington College of Law: The First Law School Established by Women for Women
Mary L. Clark, The Founding of the Washington College of Law: The First Law School Established by Women for Women, 47 American University Law Review 613 (1998)
All the Allies of Each: Lelia Robinson's Portrait of Early Women Lawyers in America
Julia Steele, All the Allies of Each: Lelia Robinson's Portrait of Early Women Lawyers in America, 1998
Dawn Bradley Berry, The 50 Most Influential Women in American Law. Los Angeles: Contemporary Books (1996).
Virginia G. Drachman, Women Lawyers and the Origins of Professional Identity in America: the Letters of the Equity Club, 1887-1890. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (1993)
Edward T. James (Ed.), Janet Wilson James (Assoc. Ed.), and Paul S. Boyer (Ass. Ed.), Notable American Women, 1607-1950; A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1971).
Angels and Amazons: A Hundred Years Of American Women
Inez Haynes Irwin Gillmore, Angels And Amazons: A Hundred Years Of American Women. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company (1933).
Can Women Practice Law?
Can Women Practice Law? 1 (5) The Law Student's Helper 102 (May 1893)
A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life
Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore (Editors), A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life, pp. 210-211. New York: Charles Wells Moulton (1893), available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=zXEEAAAAYAAJ
The Chicago Law Times Vol 2. No. 3, Women in Law, pp.301-308, Chicago Law Times, 1888
Admission of Women to the Bar
Catharine V. Waite, Admission of Women to the Bar, 1 Chicago Law Times (1887)
Admitted to Practice, Times Mercury San Jose, February 3, 1885
For His Life: The Trial of Saldee in Judge Ferral's Court
For His Life: The Trial of Saldee in Judge Ferral's Court, San Francisco Chronicle, August 1880, at 4
A Test Case
A Test Case, San Francisco Morning Call, February 19, 1880
Women and Legal Education: The Case of Boalt Hall
Women and Legal Education: The Case of Boalt Hall, Sandra P. Epstein, The Pacific Historia, Vol. XXVIII No. 3

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