Lucile Lomen
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Helen Lucile Lomen (August 21, 1920 – June 21, 1996) was the first woman to serve as a
law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
for a
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice.


Early life and education

Lomen was born in
Nome, Alaska Nome (; ik, Sitŋasuaq, ) is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska, United States. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It had a population of 3,699 recorded ...
in 1920. Her grandfather, Gudbrand J. Lomen, served as mayor of Nome and also as a district judge, inspiring her early interest in a legal career. Her family later moved to
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, where she graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1937. She then attended
Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...
, from which she graduated ''
cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' and
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
in 1941. Lomen went to law school at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
, where she graduated first in her class and was an editor on the law review. She also worked thirty hours per week in the office of Dean Judson F. Falknor, whose work as a compliance commissioner on the War Production Board required his part-time student secretary to type numerous legal memoranda.


Clerkship

Upon graduation, Lomen went to
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
to clerk for Supreme Court Justice
William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views, and is often c ...
(himself a Whitman alum) for the 1944–1945 term. In 1944, the Justice requested potential clerk names from Dean Falknor, who had recommended the hiring of four previous Douglas clerks. Initially, the Dean responded that he had no one to recommend, due to the number of recent male graduates in military service during World War II. Justice Douglas responded, "When you say that you have 'no available graduates’ whom you could recommend for appointment as my clerk, do you include women? It is possible that I may decide to take one if I can find one who is absolutely first-rate." The Dean then recommended Lomen, also sending the Justice a copy of her law review article. Lomen was also recommended to Douglas by Chester Maxey, her undergraduate adviser at Whitman, and by Douglas’s former clerk,
Vern Countryman Vernon Countryman (May 13, 1917 – May 2, 1999), was a professor at Harvard Law School and social critic who was an expert on bankruptcy and commercial law. Early years and education Vern Countryman was born in Roundup, Montana. His father, ...
. Lomen was the first female clerk at the United States Supreme Court, and the only one for more than two decades. Margaret J. Corcoran became the second female Supreme Court law clerk in 1966.


Later life and death

After her time at the Supreme Court, Lomen turned down a position in the U.S. Department of Justice in favor of her home state of Washington as assistant
attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
, where she served for three years. She went on to a 35-year career in multiple positions for
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
including counsel for corporate affairs. She retired in 1983 and died at the age of 75 in 1996.Danielski, 48.


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 4) Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each Associate Justice is permitted to employ four law clerks per Court term; the Chief ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomen, Lucile 1920 births 1996 deaths Whitman College alumni University of Washington School of Law alumni Lawyers from Seattle 20th-century American lawyers Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States People from Nome, Alaska 20th-century American women lawyers