Cravath Partner Without A Law Degree

This post is not as provocative as the heading might suggest, but it's still pretty surprising to me.  As I was reading Julius Lester's obituary in the New York Times I saw Christine Beshar's obituary.  She was a retired trusts and estates partner at Cravath who had read law and passed the New York bar without going to law school.  She was a Smith College graduate.  I found that sort of astonishing -- though there was much about Ms. Beshar's life that was extraordinary and her obituary is well worth a read.  She was born in Germany between the World Wars and came to the United States in 1945, graduated from Smith in 1953, passed the bar in 1959 and was hired as an associate at Cravath in 1964.  She became the first female partner in 1971.  And in the late 1980s she led Cravath to establish an on-site daycare for its working parents.  According to the Times, "Cravath’s 60 or so partners approved the on-site service with only one dissent."

Comments

[Enrique Guerra Pujol]

Who was the one partner who dissented?

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

There are lots of folks who make decent coin and practice sans law degree. They call them Real Estate agents... Better than me at least...and I got that JD after my good name.

[Bill Turnier]

I started work in the Tax Department at Cravath in 1968. I occasionally did work for Christine. She was a lovely capable individual. At the time I commenced working there Cravath was a as much of a meritocracy as one could find among the big firms. It was very much in keeping with its character that it would invite to a partnership a highly capable individual such as Christine who had read the law.