Register in advance. Please join us for a panel discussion with Marlene Trestman and Jill Wine-Banks. Moderated by Magistrate Judge Joan Glazer Margolis.

Marlene Trestman is the author of: Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remark­able Life of Bessie Margolin

Before there was a ​“Noto­ri­ous RBG,” there was an ​“Auda­cious Bessie M.” From the New Orlean­s’s Jew­ish orphan­age in which Bessie Mar­golin was raised to the Unit­ed States Supreme Court, Fair Labor Lawyer traces the inspir­ing jour­ney of the unsung Jew­ish legal trail­blaz­er who worked tire­less­ly to pro­tect Amer­i­can work­ers and their rights. Over the course of her career, Bessie Mar­golin defend­ed the New Deal’s Ten­nessee Val­ley Author­i­ty, draft­ed the rules for Amer­i­can Mil­i­tary Tri­bunals for Nazi war crimes at Nurem­berg, and became the nation’s first enforcer of the Equal Pay Act and a founder of NOW. Lack­ing female role mod­els, Mar­golin used her brains, beau­ty and South­ern charm to over­come anti­semitism and sex­ism, win­ning respect in a man’s world of law. Fair Labor Lawyer also reveals facets of Mar­golin’s care­ful­ly guard­ed pri­vate life, includ­ing her risky clan­des­tine romances with high-pro­file gov­ern­ment offi­cials who won her heart — but nev­er her hand in marriage.

Jill Wine-Banks is the author of The Water­gate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Jus­tice Against a Crim­i­nal President 

Obstruc­tion of jus­tice, the specter of impeach­ment, sex­ism at work, and shock­ing rev­e­la­tions: Jill Wine-Banks takes us inside her tri­al by fire as a Water­gate prosecutor.

It was a time, much like today, when Amer­i­cans feared for the future of their democ­ra­cy, and women stood up for equal treat­ment. At the cross­roads of the Water­gate scan­dal and the wom­en’s move­ment was a young lawyer named Jill Wine Vol­ner (as she was then known), bare­ly thir­ty years old and the only woman on the team that pros­e­cut­ed the high­est-rank­ing White House offi­cials. Called ​“the mini-skirt­ed lawyer” by the press, she fought to receive the respect accord­ed her male coun­ter­parts and pre­vailed. At once a cau­tion­ary tale and an inspi­ra­tion for those who believe in the pow­er of jus­tice and the rule of law, The Water­gate Girl is a rev­e­la­tion about our coun­try, our pol­i­tics, and who we are as a society.

Moderator Magistrate Judge Joan Glazer Margolis: Joan Margolis was a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. She was appointed to the court in 1985, becoming the first female appointed as a magistrate judge for the district. She retired from the court on April 30, 2018.