Papers of Lynn Hecht Schafran, 1957-2013

The papers of Lynn Hecht Schafran contain extensive clippings, correspondence, press releases, reports, amicus curiae legal briefs, legislative amendments, city ordinances, transcripts of public hearings, and Schafran's testimony that document her efforts to overturn the discriminatory policies and practices of private clubs. Also documented is her work as a judicial educator for Legal Momentum (formerly the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund). Material includes annual reports, clippings, correspondence, and speeches. Program material includes funding proposals, teaching papers, and reports. Training programs and manuals received in binders were disassembled and foldered. Also included are materials for workshops organized for the National Association of Women Judges, the Office of Violence Against Women, Department of Justice, and judicial colleges and conferences. Schafran's notes, which provide historical context, personal observations and insights, are also included. Schafran's strong support for women's rights are documented in clippings, flyers, print material, photographs, and memorabilia related to her work on the Equal Rights Amendment and her participation in national and international women's conferences. Committee work for the New York City Commission on the Status of Women, the American Bar Association, and other bar associations is represented by memorandum, minutes, legislation, local laws and ordinances, and reports. There is a comparatively small amount of biographical and personal material in the collection, including awards and honors for achievements in public interest law and judicial education. A series of "chron files," "personal files," and annotated desk calendars (which were disassembled) are also included. There is some overlap in the content of the "chron" and "personal files." Each contain clippings, correspondence to family and friends and professional colleagues, and letters to columnists and editors of various newspapers that highlight her interest in pro-choice issues (#10.10), gender bias (#11.1, 11.4), and private club litigation (#8.9). Duplicates of these letters and clippings are also included in the private litigation files (see Series II) and the professional activities files (see Series III). Newsletters featuring Schafran's writings have been retained in the collection, while others were transferred to the Schlesinger Library Published Materials Division. Most of the papers were received with folder headings, which the archivist modified to avoid duplication and to consolidate related material. Folder headings for the "chron" and "personal" files were provided by the donor and appear in quotation marks. The archivist provided the arrangement for all series and interfiled loose material. Additional material received as electronic files will be reformatted at some future date for inclusion in the appropriate series. The Legal Momentum/National Judicial Education Program web site is being captured periodically as part of Harvard University Library's Web Archive Collection (WAX).

Series I, BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL, 1957-2010 (#1.1-11.7, E.1), includes awards and honors from colleges, foundations, and organizations, including Smith College, Columbia University Law School, Quinnipac College School of Law, the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, and the American Law Institute-American Bar Association. Related clippings, correspondence, greeting cards, nomination letters, biographical material, and Schafran's speeches are also included. Highlights in this series include a transcript of Schafran's interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, organized by the Veteran Feminists of America (#2.9), clippings; yearbooks; and an undergraduate thesis. Also included are annotated desk calendars (1979-1998), which provide a record of her personal and professional appointments with comments; and post-graduate bulletins citing her role as an art instructor at Smith College and subsequent position as an associate curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art. This series also contains campaign material, consisting of correspondence, flyers, and other print material related to the elections of Elizabeth Holtzman (#7.5), Edward I. Koch (#8.6), William J. Clinton (#11.3) and others. Campaign memorabilia for Hillary Clinton is filed with memorabilia (see Series V). "Chron files" (1978-1988) and "personal files" (1979-1998), include clippings, greeting cards, invitations, and letters to family, friends, and colleagues such as Elizabeth Holtzman (#7.5), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (#7.5) and Schafran's testimony at the confirmation of Judge Sandra Day O'Connor (#8.1). Some material found in the "chron" and "personal files" are also included in private litigation (See Series II) and professional activities files (See Series III). The series is arranged alphabetically and chronologically thereunder. Most folder titles were created by the processor. Folder headings appearing in quotes are those of the donor.

Series II, LEGAL MOMENTUM AND THE NATIONAL JUDICIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM, 1970-2013 (#11.8-31.11), documents Schafran's extensive litigation against the discriminatory policies and practices of private clubs, including amici curiae legal briefs; clippings; state and federal policies; transcripts of public hearings; and the testimony of Schafran and others before judicial panels, the New York City Commission on Human Rights, New York City Council, the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal, and other state and federal agencies. Also includes legislative amendments (some of which Schafran drafted with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Jack Greenberg, former Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund); press releases; reports; and resolutions of allied organizations, which include the American Jewish Congress, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the Association of Black Women Attorneys of New York, the Harlem Lawyers Association, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and the New York City Commission on the Status of Women. This series also documents Schafran's efforts to eliminate gender bias in the courts through her work for the National Judicial Education Program, a project of Legal Momentum (formerly National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund). Included are annual reports; brochures, fact sheets and flyers; gender bias case citations, reports, and task force findings; teaching papers on rape law; and training program manuals. Named correspondence files include letters from Norma J. Wikler, founding director of the National Judicial Education Program (1979-1981), which highlight evolving aspects of the program and their working relationship. Model educational curricula developed by Schafran includes Child Sexual Abuse Model Curriculum, Understanding Sexual Violence: The Judicial Response to Stranger and Nonstranger Rape and Sexual Assault, Presiding in Adult Sexual Assault Cases: A Distance Learning Curriculum, and Intimate Partner Sexual Assault, Distance Learning Curriculum. State Justice Institute funding proposals; planning notes; and program evaluations are also included. Workshop material related to gender bias and gender fairness workshops and seminars are included in the files of the National Association of Women Judges, judicial colleges, and various conferences. There are also anti-violence curricula developed by Schafran in collaboration with the American Prosecutors Research Institute, the Office of Violence against Women, U.S. Department of Justice, and other organizations, including Violence Against Women: The Hidden Federal Jurisdiction, and A Crime Like No Other: Educating Judges about Sexual Assault. The series is arranged alphabetically and chronologically thereunder. Folder titles were created by the processor.

Series III, OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES, 1973-2013 (#31.12-54.7), includes brochures, campaign flyers, clippings, correspondence, print material, photographs, and memorabilia related to Schafran's activism with the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Conference Committee, and other women's organizations committed to the Equal Rights Amendment. Also included are annual reports; brochures and fact sheets; clippings and correspondence; minutes and reports; speeches; transcripts from public hearings; and testimony representing Schafran's professional affiliations, memberships, and committee work on behalf of the American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union Women's Rights Project, the American Jewish Committee, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Conference files include correspondence, planning notes, speeches, flyers, invitations, and other print material associated with annual meetings of the American Bar Association, the United Nations World Conferences on Women; scholarly papers from the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture Series; and photographs related to the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award luncheon. This series also includes correspondence, research, reports, surveys, and testimony documenting Schafran's role as director of the Federation of Women Lawyers' Judicial Screening Panel, responsible for vetting the nominating process for Sandra Day O'Connor, William H. Rehnquist, Robert H. Bork and others. Annual reports, correspondence, planning notes, clippings, city laws and ordinances, and legislative reports that document her work for the New York City Commission on the Status of Women are also included. The series is arranged alphabetically and chronologically thereunder. Folder titles were created by the processor.

Series IV, PUBLICATIONS AND PUBLICITY, 1967-2012 (#54.8-56.6), contains articles by and about Schafran, including Schafran's art reviews published in Art News and articles on topics associated with her professional activities, including Sandra Day O'Connor's nomination to the Supreme Court, the extension of the Equal Rights Amendment, private club litigation, gender bias in the courts, and sexual harassment in the legal profession. An active member of the National Association of Women Judges, Schafran also served as an editor and published columns and articles in the Association's newsletter Counterbalance. Newsletter submissions for Perspectives, published by the American Bar Association are also included. Edited volumes containing Schafran's articles on the Reagan administration, careers of women within the legal profession, and the history of the National Judicial Education Program were transferred to the Schlesinger Library Published Materials Division. The series is arranged alphabetically and chronologically thereunder. Folder titles were created by the processor.

Series V, PHOTOGRAPHS, OVERSIZED, MEMORABILIA, AUDIOVISUAL, 1957-2008 (#PD.1-PD.12, F+D.1-F+D.3, 57CB.1m, 58FB.1m, Vt.289.1, T-563.1), includes a group photograph of Schafran with other graduates of Smith College and photographs of Schafran receiving awards from Smith College, Columbia University School of Law, Quinnipac School of Law, and the annual Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. There is also a group photograph of Norma J. Wikler (founding director of the National Judicial Education Program) with staff lawyers from the National Organization for Women; Schafran with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and Justice Sylvia Roberts (a founding board member of the National Judicial Education Program); and other colleagues in the legal profession. Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be cataloged in VIA, Harvard University's Visual Information Access database. This series also includes oversized material, consisting of alumni newspapers describing Schafran's achievements; a program flyer associated with the Judy Chicago exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum; and the organizational newsletters in which Schafran was featured. Memorabilia consists of buttons and T-shirts associated with campaigns and rallies for the Equal Rights Amendment; anti-violence campaigns, women's health, Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and the legal profession. Audiovisual material consists of a videotape featuring a discussion of rape law trends by Schafran and attorney Roy Black on Nightline, an ABC late night news program moderated by Ted Koppel. Black was the defense attorney who won an acquittal for William Kennedy Smith on the charge of rape. The series is arranged by format and chronologically thereunder. Folder titles were created by the processor.