Justice Klein began her legal career as a deputy attorney general
for California in 1955. Seven years later, she was appointed to the Los
Angeles Municipal Court, followed by election to the Los Angeles Superior Court
in 1975. She was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal by Governor
Jerry Brown in 1978, where she served as Presiding Justice until her retirement
in 2015.
Justice Klein was a champion of women’s rights and a pioneer in the struggle to achieve equal opportunity for women in the law. In 1974, Justice Klein co-founded the California Women Lawyers; Justice Vaino Spencer founded the Black Women Lawyers Association. In 1979, the two bench mates and friends recognized the need to form an organization to promote increasing the number of women in the judiciary and to address the gender bias experienced by the few women on the bench at the time. More than 100 women judges gathered at the Westwood Marquis, October 25-28, 1979 for the first annual NAWJ conference.
Posts
