Roslyn Litman (September 30, 1928 - October 4, 2016) was an American attorney. In 1966 she negotiated a settlement with the National Basketball Association on behalf of blackballed player

Connie Hawkins Cornelius Lance "Connie" Hawkins (July 17, 1942 – October 6, 2017) was an American professional basketball player. A New York City playground legend, "the Hawk" was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. Early ye ...

on the basis of antitrust. In her first appearance before the U.S.

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 ...

in 1989, she successfully argued to remove a nativity scene from display in the Allegheny County courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Early life and education

Litman was born Eta Roslyn Margolis in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

on Sept. 30, 1928, in Brooklyn, to Ukrainian immigrants Harry and Dorothy Perlow Margolis. She had an older sister, Ruth. Her father was a clothing salesman and her mother a

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

. Litman attended

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Ac ...

. After she had graduated high school, the family moved to Western Pennsylvania. Litman attended the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, where she met her husband-to-be, S. David Litman, who was in law school there. She received a bachelor's degree in 1949, started law school, and graduated in 1952 first in her class. She joined the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

while in law school.

Career

Litman was rejected by major law firms because she was a woman, so she and her husband formed their own firm. One of Litman's first cases was arguing the right of the American Nazi Party to demonstrate in Pittsburgh. Litman and her husband, fellow lawyer S. David Litman, successfully argued in 1966 judgement in favor of a blackballed former NBA player,

, on antitrust grounds. The NBA had refused to allow any team to hire Hawkins, who at the time was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. The league agreed to a $1.3M settlement in 1969 and Hawkins was signed by the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

and eventually was inducted into the

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

. In 1989, in her first appearance before the U.S.

, Litman successfully argued on behalf of the ACLU of Pennsylvania to remove a nativity scene from display in the Allegheny County courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Litman and other members of a team of lawyers won a settlement of $415M, a record in 1991, from Continental Can Company, which the team had argued had laid off 3000 workers to avoid pension liabilities.

Personal life

Litman married S. David Litman; the couple had three children, including Harry Litman and

Jessica Litman Jessica Litman is a leading intellectual property scholar. She has been ranked as one of the most-cited U.S. law professors in the field of intellectual property/cyberlaw. Litman graduated from Reed College, received an MFA from Southern Methodis ...

. She served on the national board of the ACLU for thirty years, including as one of the organization's five National Counsel. Her husband died in 1996. Litman died of pancreatic cancer in Pittsburgh on October 4, 2016. She was 88.

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading