Marilyn P.A. Seichter collection

Marilyn P.A. Seichter was born on May 23, 1945 in Wallingford, Connecticut. Growing up she attended Holy Trinity School and graduated in 1963 from Lyman Hall High School, both located in Wallingford. She then went on to pursue her undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Political Science and becoming active in student government. After graduating in 1967 she attended the University of Connecticut School of Law from 1969 to 1970, becoming one of a first women to obtain a law degree from that institution. In the fall of 1970 Seichter joined the law firm of Hyman, Cantor and Klau, eventually rising to partner in the firm that was renamed to Hyman, Cantor, Seichter, and Klau. Seichter specialized in the fields of women's rights and family law. She worked on Abele v. Markle ("Women v. Connecticut"), the case that overturned Connecticut's law prohibiting abortion prior to the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. She also successfully represented the National Organization for Women (NOW) in a suit filed against 35 newspapers to stop the practice of segregated newspaper ads for men and women. She became friends of Ella T. Grasso and worked on Grasso's gubernatorial campaign. Seichter became the first woman chairperson of the Connecticut Ethics Commission, the first woman president of the Connecticut Bar Association (1989-1990) and had served as chair of the Young Lawyers Section (1980-1981), president of the Hartford Local Unit of the Young Lawyers Section, chair of the Marriage and Family Counseling and Conciliation Committee, delegate to the House of Delegates, and a member of the Mediation and Arbitration Executive Committee of the American Bar Association. She also served as president of the New England Bar Association (1991-1992), president of the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund, and was a member of the Governor's Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Selection and the Committee on the Status of Women. She died on February 10, 2002 from Huntington's disease.