Sally Corwin
Sally Corwin (1917–2004) was an attorney, trial lawyer, and founding partner of Corwin & Corwin whose career spanned more than six decades and helped establish her as an early woman practitioner in construction law in Massachusetts. Born Sarah Alpert in Washington, D.C. to Russian Jewish immigrant parents who operated neighborhood grocery stores, Corwin grew up in a working-class household that emphasized education and public affairs . After graduating high school, she trained in shorthand and typing, secured government work during the New Deal, and attended the Washington College of Law at night while working by day, graduating in 1939 as one of only two women in her class . Early in her career, she worked for Thomas Corcoran and later served as an attorney for the U.S. Housing Authority and the Office of Price Administration. After marrying attorney Joseph Corwin in 1942, she relocated to Massachusetts, where the couple founded Corwin & Corwin in 1947. She was active in Democratic politics, worked on campaigns for Michael Dukakis and other candidates, and served on Massachusetts’ judicial nominating committee. In 1993, she was honored by the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts as one of six trailblazing women attorneys.
On May 6, 2001, Susan Goodman interviewed Sally Corwin for the Jewish Women's Archive. Corwin, a Washington, D.C.-born attorney and daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, recounts her upbringing in a family grocery business, her early clerical work in federal government offices during the New Deal, and her legal education at the Washington College of Law, where she was one of only two women in her class . Corwin focuses on her development as a trial lawyer and her long career in construction litigation after co-founding Corwin & Corwin with her husband, Joseph Corwin, in postwar Boston. She discusses courtroom preparation, her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated legal profession, and her belief that thorough preparation was essential to professional success. The interview documents her political engagement in Massachusetts Democratic politics, including campaign work and service on judicial nominating committees, and her reflections on legal culture and changes in opportunities for women attorneys over the twentieth century.
The views expressed in these interviews are solely those of the speakers and do not reflect the positions of JWA or its affiliates.
