Susanne C. Sedgwick

Susanne C. Sedgwick (June 10, 1931 – April 8, 1988) was a legal aid lawyer and judge from Minnesota. She was the first woman Assistant Hennepin County Attorney, the second woman municipal court judge in Minnesota, the first woman Hennepin County District Court Judge, one of the first judges appointed to the newly created Minnesota Court of Appeals, and a contender for the first woman federal district court from Minnesota and the first woman on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Biography Susanne Carroll was born on June 10, 1931, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The alcoholism of her parents led to her spending time in foster care and her father went on to help found and direct the Hazelton Clinic. Sedgwick supported Roe v. Wade and elected coordinator of the bipartisan Minnesota Women's Political Caucus. Sedgwick earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and her law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 1956. Sedgwick married her husband, a banker, while in law school and gave birth to her daughter during the Christmas break. She was sworn into the bar shortly before delivering her son and had two other children. Career Sedgwick's law school instructor and District Court Douglas Amdahl encouraged her to volunteer with the legal aid society and chief staff attorney Harlan Smith quickly hired her. Sedgwick worked as a legal aid lawyer for 3 1/2 years and then as Assistant Hennepin County Attorney, the first woman, handling juvenile delinquency and child custody cases. In 1970, at age 39, she ran against a 68-year-old sitting municipal court judge which was highly unusual. (An incumbent judge had not been defeated since 1959). A pleblicite of the Hennepin County Bar showed more lawyers supported her (795 to 647) than Judge Estrem who failed to earn the support of younger members and refused to debate Sedgwick or appear with her in a public forum to answer questions. Sedgwick criticized the bloc voting system on the ballot that encouraged lawyers to endorse all incumbent judges as a group and claimed many lawyers had returned their ballots before they knew she was running. Her 180 public supporters included the state public defender, Robert Oliphant, who often appeared in municipal court. She won the election and a seat as a Minneapolis Municipal Court Judge, defeating an incumbent, Herbert Estrem (85,164 votes to 63,745).. When she assumed the bench, she was the only woman sitting judge in Minnesota.