Eleanor Jackson Piel

Eleanor Virden Jackson Piel (September 22, 1920 – November 26, 2022) was an American civil rights lawyer. She entered civil rights law after United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, a case where interned Japanese Americans were tried for declining to be drafted. She practiced law until she was in her early 90s.[1][2][3]

Eleanor Jackson Piel
Born
Eleanor Virden Jackson

(1920-09-22)September 22, 1920
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
DiedNovember 26, 2022(2022-11-26) (aged 102)
Austin, Texas, U.S.
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Berkeley (BA, JD)
University of Southern California
SpouseGerard Piel (1955–2004)
Children1
RelativesSerge Koussevitzky (cousin)

Education

Jackson Piel attended the University of California, Los Angeles and then transferred to University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a BA in 1940. She applied to the Berkeley law school, but was denied admission. She was told by the interviewing dean that “females always had nervous breakdowns.” She attended the University of Southern California school of law for one year and then transferred to Berkeley where she graduated from in 1943. She was the only woman in the graduating class,[1] and in 1970 she talked with the New York Times about the barriers women lawyers faced.[4]

Career

Jackson Piel clerked for Judge Louis E. Goodman of the Federal District Court in San Francisco.[1] In 1964, she represented Sandra Adickes in the case of Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co.[5] In 1999, she worked for ten years to free a man from Buffalo after DNA testing showed that he was innocent.[6]

Awards and honors

In 2013, she was awarded the Norman Redlich Capital Defense Distinguished Service Award from the Committee on Capital Punishment of the New York City Bar Association.[1][7]

Personal life and death

In 1955, she married Gerard Piel. Together they had a daughter.[1][6]

Jackson Piel was born in Santa Monica, California. She died on November 26, 2022, at the age of 102.[3]

References
  1. Fox, Margalit (November 28, 2022). "Eleanor Jackson Piel, Lawyer Who Fought Capital Convictions, Dies at 102". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  2. "One Tough Case". Berkeley Law.
  3. "Eleanor Jackson Piel, lawyer who challenged wrongful convictions, dies at 102". The Washington Post. 2022-11-30. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  4. "WOMEN LAWYERS CITE OBSTACLES". The New York Times. 1970-12-09. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  5. "Civil Rights Worker Sues Kress For Arrest at Mississippi Store". The New York Times. 1964-11-14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  6. Hoffman, Jan (1999-09-10). "PUBLIC LIVES; 6 Decades of an Unconventional Legal Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  7. "Eleanor Jackson Piel and James W. B. Benkard Receive City Bar's Norman Redlich Capital Defense Awards". nycbar.org. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
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