Judith Vladeck
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Judith Pomarlen Vladeck (August 1, 1923 – January 8, 2007) was a prominent American labor lawyer and
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
advocate, particularly on behalf of women. She helped set new legal precedents against
sex discrimination Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
and
age discrimination Ageism, also called agism in American English, is a type of discrimination based on one's age, generally used to refer to age-based discrimination against elderly people. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe this discrim ...
.


Life and career

Vladeck was born Judith Virginia Pomarlen in
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...
, the daughter of a newspaper distributor and a business manager for a labor union. Her parents were Joseph and Ida (Ehrlich) Pomarlen. She graduated from
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
in 1945 and received a law degree from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in 1948. She married lawyer Stephen Charney Vladeck (son of labor leader
Baruch Charney Vladeck Baruch Charney Vladeck (born Borekh Nachman Tsharni, in Yiddish: ברוך טשאַרני; January 13, 1886 – October 30, 1938) was a Belarusian-born Jewish American labor leader, journalist and politician who was general manager of ''The Jewish ...
) on February 22, 1948, and had three children. In 1957 she joined the New York City law firm of Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, which her husband had helped found in 1948. She described the firm as "the last socialist law firm in America." Vladeck turned her attention to workplace discrimination with the advent of new civil rights laws and rise of the women's movement. In a suit against the
City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
filed in 1973, Ms. Vladeck traced salary histories for more than 5,000 female faculty members. The judge ruled the university had been discriminating against them for 15 years. In 1975, she represented a professor at
Pace University Pace University is a private university with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, United States. It was established in 1906 as a business school by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace. Pace enrolls about ...
who had been denied tenure. When the university’s lawyers tried to paint the plaintiff as a troublemaker who devoted too much time to challenging the system, Vladeck responded, "The only way women are tolerated is if they are supine, silent and submissive." The
New York State Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. It consists of seven judges: the chief judge and six associate judges, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate t ...
decision reflected Vladeck's words when it wrote, "Those who fight for rights are often perceived as troublesome, but the law does not require people to be supine." One of her first big legal victories was in 1978 when she represented an engineer at Western Electric - the first female professional hired by the company - in a lawsuit alleging sexual discrimination. They won what ultimately became a class-action suit involving thousands of women, and in the process they "ended up redefining women's rights in the high-tech industry and across the economy," said the Forward's publisher, Samuel Norich. In one of the "crowning moments of her career" Vladeck represented the not-for-profit organization Nontraditional Employment for Women in a case against the contractors building ~ what was to become the New York City neighborhood known as Battery Park City. As part of the out-of-court settlement, an apprenticeship program was created to help women train in construction. With the money that NEW was awarded, the organization also built the headquarters it had long lacked in a converted firehouse in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood. It was dedicated in 1989 as the Judith Vladeck Center for Women. She was named one of "New York's 75 Most Influential Women in Business" in Crain's New York Business in 1996 and one of the Best Lawyers in New York by New York Magazine in 1995. She was profiled in the New York Times, The Institutional Investor, More and Mirabella Magazines, and featured in Stud's Terkel's book Coming of Age. As a legal scholar, she served as director of the
American Arbitration Association The American Arbitration Association (AAA) is an organization focused in the field of alternative dispute resolution, one of several arbitration organizations that administers arbitration proceedings. Structured as a non-profit, the AAA also admin ...
and the
AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...
Lawyers Coordinating Committee. She also taught employment and labor law at
Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...
and
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) is an industrial relations school and one of Cornell University's Statutory college#Cornell University, statutory colleges. The school has five academic depar ...
. In later life, she was the recipient of various awards from the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...
, the
New York County Lawyers Association The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) is a bar association located in New York City. The New York County Lawyers Association was founded in 1908 because the existing bar association excluded some lawyers from membership due to their ra ...
,
Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...
, and
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
. Vladeck had two sons, one of whom, Bruce C. Vladeck is a health administrator, and one daughter, Anne, who is currently a partner in the Vladeck law firm. In 1998, Vladeck received the Edith I. Spivack Award from the New York County Lawyers' Association's Women's Rights Committee, Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the ABA in 2002, the Edith I. Spivack Award from the New York County Lawyers Association in 1998, Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Network of Women Union Lawyers in 1998, ORT Jurisprudence Award in 1996, Hunter's Professional Achievement Award, and inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame. She died on January 8, 2007, of an
infection An infection is the invasion of tissue (biology), tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host (biology), host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmis ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.


References


External links


Judith P. Vladick
Papers at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University Special Collections
Wall Street Journal article

Daily News article

Judith Vladeck
American bar biography



*
Appearance
on ''
Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show ''Charlie Rose (talk show), Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg L.P., Bloombe ...
'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Vladeck, Judith 1923 births 2007 deaths American civil rights lawyers American labor lawyers Hunter College alumni Columbia Law School alumni Fordham University faculty Cornell University faculty Infectious disease deaths in New York (state) 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers American women academics 21st-century American women