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Notable Women in Dickinson Law History

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In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s take a moment to celebrate all the marvelous women in Dickinson Law history.  It would be impossible to list all of them, but here are just a very few of the women who have made a difference at Dickinson Law and in the legal community.

Danielle M. Conway, Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law

Last summer, Danielle M. Conway made Dickinson Law history by becoming not only the first female dean, but also the first African American dean of the Law School.  Before becoming Dean at Dickinson Law, Dean Conway served for four years as the Dean of the University of Maine School of Law.  After serving for 27 years in the U.S. Army, Dean Conway retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2016.  Dean Conway is a leading expert in procurement, entrepreneurship and intellectual property law.  She is a prolific author, scholar and advocate for public education and for actualizing the rights of marginalized groups, including Indigenous Peoples, minorities, and members of rural communities.

Julia Radle, Class of 1899

Julia Radle was Dickinson Law’s first female student.  Ms. Radle entered the Law School in 1897 and graduated in 1899.  A former teacher, Ms. Radle made the decision to attend Law School, in part, due to the urging of her brother Philip, who was also a student at Dickinson Law.

During her first year as a student, Ms. Radle was elected secretary of her class, and she served as vice-president of the Dickinson Law Society.  From 1898-1899, Ms. Radle was an editor for the law review, The Forum.  It is believed that Ms. Radle may have been the first female in the United States to serve as a law review editor.  Ms. Radle was admitted to practice law in 1900 and practiced for two years with her brother Philip in Northumberland County.  After Philip passed away, Ms. Radle returned to teaching.  In 1908, Ms. Radle married Daniel A. Kline, Perry County superintendent of schools.  They had three daughters.  Mrs. Radle Kline passed away in 1970 at the age of 94.

Sara Marvel, Class of 1900

Dickinson Law’s second female student was Sara Marvel.  Ms. Marvel joined Ms. Radle at the Law School in 1898.  She was a member of the Phi Alpha Pi Sorority and the Dickinson Law Society.  She was also elected secretary of her class in her first year, and she served as editor for both The Forum and the yearbook, The Microcosm, from 1899-1900. After graduating in 1900, Ms. Marvel passed a difficult three-day examination before the Philadelphia Bar.  In 1903, she became engaged to George Coles, also from Dickinson Law’s Class of 1900.  It is unknown if Ms. Marvel ever practiced law.

Judge Sylvia H. Rambo

Judge Sylvia H. Rambo attended Carlisle High School, where she graduated first in her class.  She then earned her B.A. degree, cum laude, from Dickinson College.  In 1959, Judge Rambo entered The Dickinson School of Law as the only woman in her class.  She graduated from the Law School in 1962.  In 1976, Judge Rambo became the first female judge in Cumberland County when she was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas.  In 1979, Judge Rambo was appointed to fill a newly-created seat on the bench for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  She was the first woman to serve in that capacity.  From 1992 to 1999, Judge Rambo accomplished yet another first, when she served as the first female Chief Judge for that Court.  Judge Rambo attained senior status on the Court in 2001.  The year 2019 marked Judge Rambo’s 40th year on the bench.

In 1993, the Women’s Law Caucus of The Dickinson School of Law established The Honorable Sylvia H. Rambo Award.  The Award was established to honor, annually, a woman in the legal profession that “has had a distinguished career and who, by example, has made the professional success of other women more likely.”  Judge Rambo was the first recipient of the Award, and it was named in her honor because of her substantial and positive impact on the community.  The 2020 recipient of The Honorable Sylvia H. Rambo Award is Noreen Tama, Esq. ’86, senior counsel for the Exxon-Mobil Corporation.  The Women’s Law Caucus recently established the Recent Alumna Award.  The 2020 recipients of this award are Alexia Tomlinson, Esq. ’18 and Erin Varley, Esq.’18.  A list of prior recipients of the Honorable Sylvia H. Rambo Award can be found here.

Dickinson Law’s First Female Students

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In honor of Women’s History Month, here is a brief look back at the first two female students at Dickinson Law.

Julia Radle

Dickinson Law’s first female student was Julia Radle.  Ms. Radle entered the Law School in 1897 and graduated in 1899.  A former teacher, Ms. Radle made the decision to attend Law School, in part, due to the urging of her brother Philip, who was also a student at Dickinson Law.

During her first year as a student, Ms. Radle was elected secretary of her class, and she served as vice-president of the Dickinson Law Society.  From 1898-1899, Ms. Radle was an editor for the law review, The Forum.  It is believed that Ms. Radle may have been the first female in the United States to serve as a law review editor.

Ms. Radle was admitted to practice law in 1900 and practiced for two years with her brother Philip in Northumberland County.  After Philip passed away, Ms. Radle returned to teaching.  In 1908, Ms. Radle married Daniel A. Kline, Perry County superintendent of schools.  They had three daughters.  Mrs. Radle Kline passed away in 1970 at the age of 94.

Class of 1899

Sara Marvel

Dickinson Law’s second female student was Sara Marvel.  Ms. Marvel joined Ms. Radle at the Law School in 1898.  She was a member of the Phi Alpha Pi Sorority and the Dickinson Law Society.  She was also elected secretary of her class in her first year, and she served as editor for both The Forum and the yearbook, The Microcosm, from 1899-1900.

After graduating in 1900, Ms. Marvel passed a difficult three-day examination before the Philadelphia Bar.  In 1903, she became engaged to George Coles, also from Dickinson Law’s Class of 1900.

Class of 1900

Dickinson Law Review

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This month marks the anniversary of the very first issue of the Dickinson Law Review.  The Forum, as it was known then, was first published in January, 1897.

[The Forum] comes not to revolutionize the periodicals of collegiate circles, nor to dim the light of any journal which may be shining in the legal world.  The purpose of The Forum is both general and specific – general in the sense that through its medium well established principles of law will be adduced and treated in the reports of moot court cases, and specific in that primarily it will be devoted to the Dickinson School of Law.  From time to time also, there will be discussions of legal questions and contributions by well-known writers.  1 FORUM 1 (1897).

Although the early editors of The Forum did not intend to be revolutionaries with the publication of their journal, they nonetheless were.  Julia Radle, Class of 1899 and the first female graduate from the Dickinson School of Law, served as one of The Forum’s editors from 1898-1899.  It is believed that Ms. Radle may have been the first female in the United States to serve as a law review editor.  In addition, only four other law schools have law reviews that predate the publication of The Forum:  the University of Pennsylvania (1852), Harvard (1887), Yale (1891), and West Virginia (1894).  Laurel Terry, Foreword:  Why “Tradition, Innovation, and New Beginnings:  Celebrating the History of the Dickinson Law Review” Is an Appropriate Title for Volume 122(1), 122 Dick. L. Rev. 5, 6 (2017).

In 1908, The Forum became known as the Dickinson Law Review.  In 1997, the Dickinson School of Law began its merger with the Pennsylvania State University, and in 2003, the Dickinson Law Review became known as the Penn State Law Review.  In 2016, the two Penn State law school campuses split into two separately accredited law schools.  Thereafter, the law review at the Carlisle location again became known as the Dickinson Law Review, while University Park assumed publication of the Penn State Law Review.

Current volumes of the Dickinson Law Review can be found in our digital repository, Dickinson Law IDEAS.  Volumes of the Dickinson Law Review dating all the way back to the very first issue of The Forum can be found on HeinOnline.

Dickinson Law: First Women’s Law Club and M. Vashti Burr

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First members of the Omicron Chapter of Phi Delta Delta

Julia Radle, Class of 1899, was Dickinson Law’s first female student.  She was followed by Sara M. Marvel, who entered the Law School the year after Ms. Radle.  By the Fall of 1922, there were enough women enrolled at the Law School for the formation of a Women’s Law Club.  The Club was formed by Mrs. Eleanor Stevenson and Anna E. Davis, Class of 1923; M. Vashti Burr and Florence E. Everhart, Class of 1924; and Dorothy E. Stroh and Eleanor F. Buchanan, Class of 1925.

On May 18, 1923, the Women’s Law Club became the Omicron Chapter of Phi Delta Delta, a women’s law fraternity that had been established in 1911 at the College of Law, University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

One of the founders of the Women’s Law Club, M. Vashti Burr from the Class of 1924 went on to serve as President of Phi Delta Delta from 1936-1938.  On August 12, 1972, Phi Delta Delta merged with Phi Alpha Delta.  In 1974, the Omicron Chapter was renamed after Ms. Burr and became known as the M. Vashti Burr Chapter.  The Burr Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta still exists at the Law School today.

M. Vashti Burr

Ms. Burr also played a significant role as an alumna of the Law School, serving as a Charter Member, and subsequently secretary, of The Dickinson School of Law, General Alumni Association.  As an attorney, she was the first female Assistant Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1926 to 1931, and she served as Deputy Attorney General from 1943 to 1955.

William Vallie Whittington

Ms. Burr married William Vallie Whittington, an attorney with the U.S. Department of State.  Mr. Whittington was the Technical Adviser on Treaties with the International Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, at which the United Nations Charter was drawn up and signed.  A limited number of certified copies of the Charter were bound in leather.  Mr. Whittington, due to his position, was able to obtain one of these copies.

Ms. Burr, who retained her maiden name after marriage, passed away in 1963, and in 1968, Mr. Whittington married Louise Gunlock Weathers.  After Mr. Whittington’s death in 1986, Mrs. Whittington wrote to the Library of Dickinson Law, indicating that she wished to donate Mr. Whittington’s copy of the UN Charter and other documents related to the creation of the UN and the surrender of Germany in the Second World War.  The copy of the UN Charter is presently on display on the second floor of the Library.

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