Young Lawyers organization to honor first 100 women attorneys in state

Young lawyers will pay homage to their elders when the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association honors Nevada's first 100 women attorneys at a dinner in Las Vegas next month.

The history goes back more than a century. The first woman attorney of record in Nevada -- Laura M. Tilden -- was given a license to practice 106 years ago, on July 22, 1893. The state bar association wasn't accredited until 1928. Lawyers then were accredited through the state Supreme Court.

But the young lawyers had to keep culling records through 1979 to find the first 100 women lawyers -- the youngest of the honored group are in their mid-40s.

Included in the 100 are Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

The fact that organizers had to continue their search for the first 100 women attorneys until such a recent date reflects another fact: So few were admitted to the bar until more recent years.

The number of male attorneys was relatively small until recent years as well because of the state's small population.

Among the first 100 women attorneys expected to attend the dinner are 96-year-old Sally Springmeyer of Gardnerville, who was admitted to the state bar in 1936, and Emilie Wanderer, 89, who passed her bar exam in 1947 and opened a practice in Las Vegas.

Wanderer was among the first 25 women attorneys of record in Nevada and one of the first in Clark County.

Records don't reflect where the first 24 women practiced, or if they actually did practice, according to Wayne Blevins, executive director of the Nevada Bar Association.

"There was a prejudice against female attorneys in those days," Blevins said.

Many of the pioneers will be at Chinois restaurant at the Forum Shops at Caesars at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 for an invitation-only dinner hosted by Wolfgang Puck, his wife, Barbara Lazaroff, and business partner Tom Kaplan.

The salute kicks off a national convention of the Young Lawyers Division, the largest division of the American Bar Association. The convention will continue through Oct. 24.

Las Vegas attorney Von Heinz, who has been active in the Young Lawyers Division, said more than 500 of its 160,000 members will be at the convention.

To be eligible to join the Young Lawyers Division, an attorney must have been in practice three years or less and be 36 years old or younger.

The Clark County Bar Association presently has 636 women members, or 23.5 percent of the 2,700 total, Blevins said.

Tim Gugerty of the American Bar Association's staff in Chicago said honoring women attorneys in Nevada is part of several activities that will take place in Las Vegas during the convention.

The dinner will be a fund-raising event for Safe Nest, a 24-hour shelter for victims of domestic violence. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the focus of the national Young Lawyers Division this year.

Gugerty said invitations have just gone out for the dinner, so he does not know how many will attend.

"Actually, the number of women being honored is greater than 100," he said. "The bar admits a certain number per year, so to cut off the list at 100 would have arbitrarily cut off several who were admitted in the same year."

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