By Zenell Brown

Henrietta Rosenthal has been highlighted in the Detroit Legal News at least twice: first, in the publication’s 1995 “Legal Legends” feature commemorating its centennial anniversary, and again in a 2020 “My Turn” op-ed by its editor-in-chief Tom Kirvan.

This feature is in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, acknowledging Henrietta’s contribution to the Detroit legal community and to support the Jewish Women’s Archive’s efforts to complete an entry on Rosenthal in its encyclopedia.

Rosenthal put her pen to creative use. At the 1953 annual Women Lawyers Association of Michigan Dinner, a cast of members performed Henrietta Rosenthal’s skit entitled “Court’s in Session” or “Give the Lady Your Seat.” Rosenthal had plenty of evidence on which to create her spoof on the lack of women in the judiciary.

At that time, Rosenthal was working at Detroit Recorder’s Court. The number of women judges was sub-negligible. The first woman judge of the Detroit Recorder’s Court, Martha Wright Griffiths, was appointed in 1953. In 1953, Judge Lila Neuenfelt was in her 12th year of service as still the first and only woman on the Third Circuit Court.

Susan Borman, who was also Jewish, was elected in 1972, becoming the second woman judge on the Detroit Recorder’s bench. And, it would be another 13 years before Cornelia Groefsema Kennedy would become the second woman on the Third Circuit Court in 1966. It would be a decade before there would be women in the highest roles at these courts.

Rosenthal was fortunate as a woman lawyer. She earned her law degree in 1918 from the University of Michigan. After graduation, she joined the practice in her brothers’ firm. Most women lawyers during that time were lucky to find employment as legal secretaries.

Like any good Detroit attorney of her day, Rosenthal joined the Detroit Bar Association (DBA). The Detroit Bar Association had existed since 1836, and in 1919 membership was open to women. It would be decades before its leadership roles would open to women lawyers. Judge Cornelia Kennedy would become the first woman to join the DBA Board of Directors in 1964.

In 1919, while women were disenfranchised, women lawyers were treated with second-class status. On March 24, 1919, Rosenthal and four other women acted boldly and urgently. They founded the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan. Rosenthal served as the second WLAM president from 1921-23, a term where women attorneys had to challenge entrenched exclusionary traditions.

Rosenthal is undeniably one among the earliest Jewish to argue before the Michigan Supreme Court women lawyers in Michigan. But her immortal mark was made as legal advisor, “The brains behind the judges she served.” Rosenthal began working at the Detroit Recorder’s Court in the 1940s and worked there for approximately 27 years, retiring as its director of legal research.

Rosenthal died in 1975. By then, Griffiths had served as Michigan’s first woman lieutenant governor and women comprised at least 5% of Michigan’s judiciary.

Rosenthal had helped blaze a trail, and women of all religions, races, and backgrounds were making their way and taking their seats in legal and judicial careers.

Carole Chiamp would be elected as the first woman president of the Detroit Bar Association in 1982. Chiamp championed access to women lawyers and advanced equality and parity for women throughout society.

The late Vera Massey Jones became the first woman Chief Judge in Detroit Recorder’s Court in 1995 and remained in that role until the 1997 merger into the Third Circuit Court. Mary Beth Kelly became the first woman Chief Judge of Third Circuit Court in 2002 and served through 2007.

There has been a long line of women legal advisors to Third Circuit Court judges. Attorneys Kimberly Reed, Elizabeth Kocab, Diane Lemanek, and Fran Yturri are some of the women attorneys who would follow in Rosenthal’s legal counsel role and provide legal services for the Recorder’s Court which later became the Criminal Division of the Third Circuit Court. They used their intellectual prowess to solve internal and external disputes.

As of 2026, women comprise 46% of sitting Michigan judges, compared to just 5% in 1979 when the statistic was first tracked.

Progress does not just happen. It happens when an attorney picks up her pen to write a skit that challenges the circumstances of her time, or to sign a document envisioning a better future. It happens when a retiring judge pens remarks filled with gratitude for the 108th Annual Meeting of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan. It happens when we as the Detroit legal community pick up our pens and make a donation to help preserve the legacy of Henrietta Rosenthal in the Jewish Women’s Archives.

For more info on the encyclopedia project: 

• https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rosenthal-henrietta

• Jewish Women’s Archive1860 Washington Street, Suite #204Newton, MA 02466
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Zenell B. Brown is the fairness and accountability administrator  for the State Court Administrative Office. Brown previously served for more than 25 years in various roles at the 3rd Circuit Court culminating in nearly a decade as executive court administrator.