Appellate Practice,
Law Practice
Nov. 8, 2022
Clara Foltz: pioneer lawyer for women, criminal defendants and all Californians
Foltz lobbied the California legislature to allow women to practice law. In 1878, the state senate approved a bill that would have allowed it, but the assembly defeated it.
John S. Caragozian
Email: caragozian@gmail.com
John is a Los Angeles-based lawyer and sits on the Board of the California Supreme Court Historical Society. He welcomes ideas for future monthly columns on California's legal history at caragozian@gmail.com.
We would expect that capable and courageous people fought for the right of women to practice law, for the right of women to vote, and for the right of criminal defendants to have competent counsel. What may be extraordinary is that, in California, one woman, Clara Shortridge Foltz, led the fight for all of these rights.
Clara Shortridge was born in 1849 in Indiana. At age 15, she eloped with Jeremiah Foltz, a 25-year-old Union Army veteran...
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