Oral history interview with Roberta A. Kaplan, 2017

Biographical Note

Roberta Kaplan is a lawyer and founder of Kaplan & Company, LLP. The firm specializes in public interest matters. She is most famous for her defense of gay marriage. As of 2018, Kaplan held a position as a faculty member at Columbia Law School while continuing to run her law firm

Scope and Contents

Roberta Kaplan begins her interview by discussing the influence of family and mentors on her life, especially her grandmother. Kaplan then discusses her time at Harvard University, the love of Russian language that she developed there, methods that she used learning Russian, and her time studying abroad in Russia. She describes her experience coming out to her parents, and details how a negative coming out experience led her to meet Edie Windsor. Through the majority of the rest of the interview, Kaplan details her experience with the case United States v. Windsor. She details her "rules of the case" and other strategies employed. Kaplan concludes with analysis of the anticipated impact of the election of President Trump will be on the future of LGBTQ laws and court cases

Subjects

• Clark, Mary Marshall, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Columbia University--Alumni and alumnae--Interviews.
• Gay couples--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• Interviews.
• Kaplan, Roberta A.--Interviews.
• Lawyers--Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Same-sex marriage--Law and legislation--United States.
• United States.--Defense of Marriage Act.
• Windsor, Edie.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2017