Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, 1923 – 2012
I was saddened to hear this week that Judge Betty Binns Fletcher passed away this past Monday. Judge Fletcher was probably best known for her unapologetic and staunchly liberal opinions, in a circuit already known for its liberal leanings.
However, I wanted to take a minute to recognize the life of this amazing woman in another way. Judge Fletcher graduated at the top of her law school class in 1956, from the University of Washington. Obviously, this in and of itself was a remarkable accomplishment at a time when women didn’t go to law school, let alone graduate at the top.
Here’s the truly mind-blowing part though: when Judge Fletcher accomplished this, she was a 33 year old mother of four children. Four. And she made them breakfast before commuting from Tacoma to the University of Washington for law school. Damn.
She went on to accomplish many firsts, including being the first woman to make partner at a major law firm in the Pacific Northwest, and the first woman to serve as president of the King County Bar Association. She also stuck it to Sen. Orrin Hatch when he tried to block her son William Fletcher’s appointment to the Ninth Circuit.
I’m not sure how she did it all. I have one child and some days it’s all I can do not to tear my hair out. And how much harder it must have been sixty years ago, when Judge Fletcher started law school. The sacrifices she must have made, the candles she burned at both ends, the textbooks I imagine she must read while she rocked a sick child. I can feel her sacrifice in my gut.
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Judge Fletcher at dinner one evening in San Francisco, when I clerked for the Ninth Circuit. She was kind, warm, funny, and sharp as a tack. She would have been 85 or 86 then. I wasn’t a mother then, and I didn’t know that she had attended law school and started her legal career as a mother of four. Otherwise, I might have grilled her on how she did it. Might have begged her for her secrets.
But I think I probably know the real answer: a lot of hard work, determination, and sacrifice. There aren’t any short cuts for “having it all” – a legal career that leaves the world a better place, and a mom career that, well, also leaves the world a better place.
You did it, Judge Fletcher, and for that, you are one of my heroines. I hope that, wherever you are, you are giving the conservatives hell.
Judge Fletcher’s Life and Career
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Jessie Lundberg is a consumer law attorney in Missoula, Montana, currently serving as an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow with Montana Legal Services Association. In November 2012, she opens Lundberg Law Office, specializing in consumer protection litigation and bankruptcy. Read her full bio here.
All opinions stated herein are personal and do not constitute the position of any organization or employer.
