Oral history interview with Virginia Watkin, 1997

Biographical Note

Attorney-at-law

Scope and Contents

Childhood: early interest in law related to women's status, family support; education: Northfield School for Girls (boarding school) 1942, Wellesley 1946, Columbia Law School 1949, classmates and faculty, attitude toward women, impact of WWil; marriage and family: mother's career, father's attitude toward career, grandmother, husband's support; career: impact of WWII, sexual and religious discrimination, Research Assistant at Columbia Law, impact of Korean War, clerkships, impact of pregnancy and children, Legislative Assistant at American Association of University Women, associate at Covington and Burling, tax lawyer, partnership track, retired 1958-1960, grant at Radcliffe [later Bunting] Institute, Associate Counsel at Massachusetts Crime Commission, wrote book for Radcliffe Institute, litigation assistant and then partner at Herrick and Smith law firm, 1973-1974, partner at Covington and Burling, retired 1994; cases: Texas City case, ammunitions case, tax cases, depositions, courtroom experiences, women's issues

Subjects

• Columbia University. School of Law--Alumni and alumnae.
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Watkin, Virginia G.--Interviews.
• Wilson, Sarah, interviewer.
• Women lawyers--Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2002