Margaret Brent Award feature: Eleanor Dean Acheson

Eleanor Dean (“Eldie”) Acheson of Washington, D.C., is vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of National Railroad Passenger. A graduate of Wellesley College in 1969 and George Washington University Law School in 1973, Acheson was the first woman associate in the litigation department of Ropes & Gray.  During her 19 years at the firm, she became a champion for women, devoting her time to pro bono cases that included aiding battered women and representing women in a challenge of Massachusetts’ absolute preference for veterans.  She argued that case, Feeney v. Commonwealth, all the way to the United States Supreme Court.  In 1993, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as assistant attorney general for the Office of Policy Development.  In this role, Acheson supported many civil rights issues and helped implement the Violence Against Women Act.  She was instrumental in helping Clinton reshape the federal judiciary to “look more like America.”  Under her watch, the percentage of women on the United States District Courts almost doubled between 1992 and 2001.

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