Allen, Florence Ellinwood
1884 - 1966

Details
Alias: Florence Ellinwood
Born: 3/23/1884 in Salt Lake City, Utah
Died: 9/12/1966
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Professional Facts

Practice Area:
Intellectual Propert
Profession:
Patent Law
Constitutional Law
Regions and States of Practice:
OH, Midwest
Legal Education:
University of Chicago Law School, 1910
New York University School of Law, 1913
Other Education:
New Lyme Institute in Ashtabula County, Ohio (1895-1897)
Salt Lake College (1897-1899)
Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio (1904)
M.A., Western Reserve University (1908)
Positions During Her Career:
Assistant secretary to Maud Wood Park, who worked for the National College Women Suffrage League
Private practice in Cleveland, Ohio (1914-1919)
Assistant County Prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (1919-1920)
Judge of Court of Common Pleas (1920-1922)
Judge of the Ohio Supreme Court (1922-1934)
Judge on the 6th Circuit (1934-1965)
Chief Judge of the 6th Circuit (1958-1959)
Senior Judge of the 6th Circuit (1959)
Volunteer for the Cleveland Legal Aid Society
Member of the Advisory Council of the United States Law Review
Firsts:
Woman appointed Assistant County Prosecutor
Woman elected to be a judge
Woman to sit on a state supreme court (Ohio, 1922)
Woman to sit on an Article III Federal Court (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1934)
Woman to preside over a murder trial with women jurors
Woman to sentence a man to death
Woman Chief Judge of a federal circuit court
Accomplishments:
Has received an honorary LL.D. degree from Western College, Smith College, Western Reserve University, New York University, Otterbein College, Beloit College, Toledo University, Berea College, Marietta College, Ohio State University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wittenberg College, Rutgers University, Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College, North Carolina University, Pennsylvania State College for Women, Wilson College, Rockford College, and Russell Sage College


Further Research Materials

References:
Black Women Judges: The Historical Journey of Black Women to the Nation’s Highest Courts
Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, Black Women Judges: The Historical Journey of Black Women to the Nation’s Highest Courts, 53 Howard Law Journal 645 (Spring 2010)
Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry: Florence Ellinwood Allen
James R. Elkins, Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, September 2, 2001-September, 2006, available at: http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/lp-2001/allen_florence.html
A Century of Achievement: The Centennial of the National Association of Women Lawyers
Selma Moidel Smith: A Century of Achievement: The Centennial of the National Association of Women Lawyers, 85 Women Lawyers Journal 2 (Summer 1999) *Originally printed as two articles: "...The First 50 Years," 9 Experience 1 (Fall 1998), and "...The Second 50 Years," 9 Experience 2 (Winter 1999)
Catherine Aman, Centuries of Change, Women in the Law, The American Lawyer, March 1999, pp.57-60
Book Review: Feminist Lawyers
Barbara Allen Babcock, Book Review: Feminist Lawyers, 50 Stanford Law Review 1689 (May 1998)
15 Years of Advocacy for Women
Lisa Small, 15 Years of Advocacy for Women: Women and the Law Time Line, 1619-1998. Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program on its 15th Anniversary, 1998.
A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States
Professor Cunnea and Lisa Small, A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States. March 8, 1998.
Dawn Bradley Berry, The 50 Most Influential Women in American Law. Los Angeles: Contemporary Books (1996).
Rebecca Mae Salokar and Mary L. Volcansek (Eds.), Women in Law: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (1996).
Women in the Federal Judiciary: Three Way Pavers and the Exhilarating Change President Carter Wrought
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Laura W. Brill, Women in the Federal Judiciary: Three Way Pavers and the Exhilarating Change President Carter Wrought, 64 Fordham Law Review 281 (November 1995)
Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green (Editors), Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1980)
Florence E. Allen Dies; Retired Federal Jurist
Florence E. Allen Dies; Retired Federal Jurist, The Washington Post, September 14, 1966, at B6
Florence Ellinwood Allen, To Do Justly. Cleveland: Western Reserve University Press (1965)
Laura Miller Derry, Digest of Women Lawyers and Judges. Lousville, Kentucky: Dunne Press (1949)
Florence E. Allen Named Federal Judge; First Woman to Get Place on Circuit Bench
Florence E. Allen Named Federal Judge; First Woman to Get Place on Circuit Bench, The New York Times, March 7, 1934, at 9
Miss Allen Talks of Women's Gains
N. R. Howard, Miss Allen Talks of Women's Gains: First Woman Named a U.S. Circuit Judge Thinks Suffrage Improves Politics, The New York Times, March 25, 1934, at 9
Judge Florence Allen
Percilla Lawyer Randolph, Judge Florence Allen, 19 Women Lawyer's Journal 15 (1932)
Justice is Truth in Action: Success Is Being Won By Many Women In The Administration Of Law and Justice
Ida White Parker, Justice is Truth in Action: Success Is Being Won By Many Women In The Administration Of Law and Justice, The Business Woman 8 (1923)
Interesting People: The First Woman Judge of a Common Plea Court Belives in 'Speeding up Justice', American Magazine (October, 1921)
First Woman Judge, The Independent Woman, July 1921
The First Woman to Sit on A Supreme Court Bench
Allan Harding, The First Woman to Sit on A Supreme Court Bench, The American Magazine 19
Woman Elected Judge
Edith E. Moriarty, Woman Elected Judge, Woman Citizen (July 1921)

Links:

Student Papers:
Potential Paper Topics:
An analysis of her work for the suffrage movement, including her involvement with Ohio referendum to grant women the right to vote and her case in 1916, in which she argued successfully before the Ohio Supreme Court, persuading them to uphold laws granting women the right to vte in municipal elections in the cities of East Cleveland and Lakewood.
An analysis of the infamous "Black Hand" case, in which she received death threats.
An analysis of the trial of the former chief judge of the Municipal Court in Cleveland, over which she presided.
An analysis of her cases holding in favor of workers' rights, proportional voting, peaceful picketing, and insane defendants' right to psychiatric exams.
An analysis of her cases involving race, with special emphasis on Weaver v. Board of Trustees of Ohio State.
An analysis of the case in which she upheld the Tennessee Valley Authority, an important piece of FDR's New Deal legislation.
An analysis of the attitudes and circumstances that kept Judge Allen from being appointed to the United States Supreme Court.