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Doris L. Sassower
J.D., New York University
Law School, Co-Founder. Renowned
nationally as a pioneer feminist and leader of the women's
rights movement before the movement was recognized as a
movement, "mother of joint custody," and well known for her work
as a divorce law and judicial reformer, she had a distinguished
35-year career at the bar (Martindale-Hubbell
Law Directory, 1989 ed.), with her own law firm, when, as a
result of her judicial whistleblowing, she was viciously
retaliated against in June 1991 by a due processless
politically-motivated suspension of her law license for having
sought to expose the corruption of judicial elections by
powerful party bosses in both Republican and Democratic parties.
As pro bono counsel to the Ninth Judicial Committee,
CJA's predecessor grassroots local group, in 1990, she
challenged a corrupt political deal between the Republican and
Democratic parties for
cross-endorsement of seven judges over a three-year period in
the Ninth Judicial District of New York (the infamous
"Three-Year Deal" in the groundbreaking case of Castracan v.
Colavita, et al. SEE
Where Do You Go When Judges Break the Law?, CJA's
$16,770 Op-Ed page ad, New York Times (October 26, 1994);
Restraining 'Liars in the Courtroom' and on the Public Payroll,
CJA's $3,077 ad, New York Law Journal (August 27, 1997).
In 1997, Doris was honored by the
National Giraffe Award, recognizing “the courageous actions”
of “those who stick their necks out for the public good.”
She died in October 2019, eulogized by her daughter
Elena,
here
From the Archives
Worked for
Arthur T. Vanderbilt,
1956-June 1957
"law reform
is not a sport for the short-winded"
NJ Courts Bio
* * *
DLS' November 12, 1973 letter to
Grandson Arthur T. Vanderbilt, II
Grandson Vanderbilt's November 16, 1973 letter to DLS
Photo
of Cherished Memorabilia
* * *
The Challenge of Law Reform (1956)
by Arthur T. Vanderbilt
pp. 26-27: "...the bar of the
state has a grave duty which it must bring itself to face.
If
the fountain of justice has been polluted or is believed by many to
be polluted,
the bar of a state can have no greater responsibility
than to remove the cause of contamination
or believed contamination
and to prevent its recurrence."
Changing
Law: A Biography of Arthur T. Vanderbilt
by
Arthur T. Vanderbilt, II
acknowledgment
Among this
decisions:
In
Re Greenberg,
15 N.J. 132 (1954)
"...the work of our appellate courts cannot go on satisfactorily if
we cannot rely
on the representations of counsel to us both as
to the facts and as to the law."
137-138: "The process of deciding cases on appeal involves the joint
efforts of counsel and the court. It is only when each branch of the
profession performs its function properly that justice can be
administered to the satisfaction of both the litigants and society
and a body of decisions developed that will be a credit to the bar,
the courts and the state."
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