Edith L. Fisch (March 3, 1923 – August 3, 2006). was an American jurist and legal scholar. Fisch was born in New York City and grew up in Brooklyn. She was disabled by

poliomyelitis Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sym ...

at age 12 and lived the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She attended

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

for undergraduate studies, graduating with a B.S. in chemistry in 1945. When she earned three law degrees from Columbia Law School in 1948, 1949, and 1950, she became the first woman to earn a

J.S.D. A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate in law equivalent to the more commonly awarded Doctor of Philosophy degree. Australia The S.J.D. is offered by the Australian National Unive ...

at Columbia and the first student there to earn all three law degrees. The professors at Columbia discouraged her from going on to teach law despite her ambition to do so, but she taught at the New York Law School from 1962 to 1965, becoming the first female law professor in New York State... She is the author or co-author of the law textbooks ''The Cy Pres Doctrine in the U.S.'' (1951), ''Fisch on New York Evidence'' (1959), and ''Charities and Charitable Foundations'' (1974), and was president of the New York Women's Bar Association from 1970 to 1971.

References

1923 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American women Brooklyn College alumni Columbia Law School alumni American jurists American people with disabilities People with paraplegia {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub

See also

References