It is with great sadness that the New York Women's Bar Association reports that our Founder and Past President, Honorable Florence Perlow Shientag, passed away on October 7, 2009.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University and her law degree in 1933 from the New York University School of Law, Judge Shientag began her distinguished career as a Law Secretary to the Honorable Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of the City of New York. In 1941, she became a Judge of the Domestic Relations Court. In 1943, she became an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she was the first woman to serve in this capacity and served in the Criminal Division. She also served as a Law Aide to Governor Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1954, Judge Shientag established a private practice concentrating in domestic relations, with offices in New York, London and Paris. Her practice later included other areas of law, and in one notable case she argued successfully in the United States Supreme Court in defense of the publication "La Ronde" against a charge of indecency. In recent years, she lived in New York and Florida, and until quite recently she practiced law and continued to be active in the Association.

In the 1930's, no bar associations in Manhattan allowed women to be members. In 1934, when she was a recent law graduate and newly admitted to the bar, Judge Shientag was one of a group of women attorneys who gathered together to form the New York Women's Bar Association. In 1935, she was a signatory on the Association's Certificate of Incorporation, which established the NYWBA as a "full service bar association," with the additional purpose to "define and elevate the status of women." Judge Shientag later served as President of the Association for the 1941-1942 membership year.

Throughout her extraordinary life, Judge Shientag was continuously involved in the activities of the Association. She established the Hon. Florence Perlow Shientag Scholarship, which annually awarded $5,000, and later $10,000, to law students for their submission of the most distinguished article on issues of constitutional law. She also made innumerable contributions, both financial and in time, to the Association and to our charity, the New York Women's Bar Association, Inc. For many years, she also provided funds to defray the expenses of NYWBA Presidents. She noted a few years ago that she had attended the NYWBA's Annual Installation and Awards Dinners and Luncheons nearly every year for more than seventy years.

Beginning in the 1980's, after the NYWBA became a founding chapter of the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY), Judge Shientag regularly attended WBASNY's annual conventions. At the meeting of the WBASNY Board of Directors on September 12, 2009, which was also the date of her 101st birthday, WBASNY adopted a resolution wishing Judge Shientag a happy birthday and thanking her for her life-long efforts on behalf of women lawyers.

The funeral for Judge Shientag was held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, October 9, 2009 at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home, 1076 Madison Avenue (at East 81st Street), New York, NY (212-288-3500). In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the New York Women's Bar Association Foundation, Inc., 132 East 43rd Street, The Chrysler Building, #716, New York, NY 10017-4019.



Photos:

• Upper right [SHIENTAG (1940's).jpg] - Hon. Florence Perlow Shientag in the 1940's, around the time that she served as NYWBA President.
• Middle left [NY427 (Hon. Florence Shientag May 2000).JPG] - Hon. Florence Perlow Shientag in 2000, at the WBASNY Annual Convention
• At end [1952 - AUSA Shientag SDNY (first woman).jpg]: Florence Perlow Shientag, Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, 1952 (seated in front row, second from left), the first woman to serve that capacity. She served as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division.