THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Elizabeth K. Spahn
“I never lost a case and I never charged a client. I am a world class troublemaker.”
Attorney, Professor of Law Emerita at New England Law in Boston, reproductive rights activist. A First Female Class Member for Yale University. A co-founder of Yale Women’s Center. Taught Constitutional Law, Employment Law, First Amendment Law, International Business: Combating Bribery and Money Laundering, and International Women’s Issues. Taught at Peking University Law School in China from 1999 to 2000. Attended the United Nations Population Conference in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994; represented the Feminist Majority Foundation at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. Served as a public expert for the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Working Group. Specialist in international anti-corruption scholarship.
Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, October 2025
Photo. Elizabeth Spahn, March 2026.
More About Elizabeth:
- Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls…, by Anne Gardiner Perkins, Audiobook preview
- Mis-Conceptions: The Moment of Conception in Religion, Science and Law, League of Women Voters Manatee County
- Geller v. Markham, 481 F. Supp. 835 (D. Conn. 1979) , Elizabeth K. Spahn, New England School of Law, Boston, Mass., Gary J. Mena, Greater Boston Legal Services, Dorchester, Mass., for plaintiffs.
- Waiting for Credentials: Feminist Theories of Enforcement of International Human Rights
- Appearances on C-SPAN