Life Member Norma L. Shapiro, whose career was marked by many firsts for a female lawyer and judge, died on July 22 at the age of 87.
Judge Shapiro was the first woman to serve as a law clerk on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the first woman partner at Dechert LLP, the first woman to serve as a member and later as chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association Board of Governors, the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the first women to serve as a judge on any federal court in the Third Circuit.
This past May, she was presented with the Anne X. Alpern Award by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, which is presented to a female judge or lawyer demonstrating “excellence in the legal profession and who makes a significant professional impact on women in the law.”