Obituary: Christine Beshar

choi

(1) James R Hagerty, Christine Beshar, 1929-2018. Lawyer Carved a Trail for Women. Wall Street Journal, Feb 3, 2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chr ... or-women-1517585400

Note: The print version ended with the paragraph that said: "She was 88."  I did not know of her, but find her life story interesting.

choi

(2) New York Times, published an obituary in print on Jan 19, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/ ... yer-dies-at-88.html

Quote:

"An immigrant from Germany, Mrs Beshar passed the New York bar exam in 1959 on her first try without having attended law school. She had clerked for her husband's firm [Robert P Beshar's law firm was not Cravath] for four years. (Since then, some form of classroom study in a law school has been required to become an attorney in New York.)

"Through a friend at Cravath, she was offered a job as an associate in 1964. * * * When Mrs Beshar was elected [as a partner at Cravath], her boss, Roswell Gilpatric, told her that there was one issue that had yet to be resolved: The firm had only one restroom reserved for partners.

"Her father [Hans von Wedemeyer, a farmer,] was killed fighting for Germany in World War II. With two of her sisters and her youngest brother, Christine fled the advancing Soviet army in January 1945, a few months before the war in Europe ended. [Her mother lived in Germany after World War II.]

"After attending the University of Hamburg and the University of Tuebingen, she won a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Smith College in Northampton, Mass. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1953.

"Mrs. Beshar formally retired in 1999, but was named of counsel in 2000 and senior counsel in 2009.

Note:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) Bar Exam Eligibility. New York State Board of Law Examiners, undated.
www.nybarexam.org/eligible/eligibility.htm

Quote:

"METHODS OF QUALIFYING FOR NEW YORK BAR EXAMINATION[:] Section 520 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys and Counselors at Law provides four routes for an applicant to qualify to take the New York bar examination, all of which require at least some form of classroom study in a law school.
* * *
2. Law Office Study/Clerkship - A combination of law school study at an ABA approved law school and law office study  (520.4 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals)."

"CORRESPONDENCE STUDY, SELF-STUDY, ON-LINE LAW DEGREES[:] Law degrees obtained by way of correspondence, external, internet or self-study do not qualify an individual to take the New York bar examination.

California is the only state in United States that allows attendees of correspondence or online law school -- but not those of self-study -- to take a bar exam.