THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Brooksley Born

“What we found was appalling…the breadth of discrimination in case law and common law and statutory law.”

Attorney, Policy Maker and Changer. Helped found the Women’s Legal Defense Fund, now the National Partnership for Women and Families. Women’s Rights Project of the Center for Law and Social Policy. Board Chair of National Women’s Law Center. Established the Rights of Women Committee of the American Bar Association’s section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities, and served on its governing council. First woman on the ABA’s Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary and was its first woman chair. ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession. Co-founded and co-chaired the ABA’s women’s caucus. Former Chair of the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, February 2020

Photo 1. First female president of the Stanford Law Review, Spring 1964. Photo 2. Brooksley Born, Board Chair of National Women’s Law Center with Marcia Greenberger and Nancy Duff Campbell, co-Presidents, National Women’s Law Center. Photo 3. Brooksley questions Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke during the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission about the actions of the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis and the future of financial market regulation. Photo 4. Brooksley Born accepts the JFK Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library, 2009.