I picked up this posting of a list of Women Lawyers at DOJ in 1937. Dan Ernst, Women Lawyers at the Department of Justice, 1937 (Legal History Blog), here. The actual list is here. The list does not break down the women by division. Wikipedia says that the Tax Division was formed in 1934. See Wikipedia entry here.
At least one on the list -- Helen R. Carloss -- handled tax cases, including in the Supreme Court. I recognized her name and so first did a Google search and then a LEXIS-NEXIS search. I report some of the results below.
Before reporting the results on Helen Carloss, however, I want to say that I don't mean to slight any of the others, particularly those who might have worked on tax cases or for the Tax Division after it was formed. I am just time limited, so any reader who wants to pick one or more names to write a blog entry or a comment on, please do so and let me know.
An ancestry entry is here, which says:
Helen Carloss earned plaudits from Justice William O. Douglas for her skill as an advocate for the government in tax cases from the 1920s to the 1940s.The same entry has the following which is attributed as an article in the Washington Post on March 28, 1934:
Source: The United States Supreme Court: The Pursuit of Justice - by Christopher L. Tomlins, Houghton Mifflin - 2005.
The Washington Post ¦ Wednesday, March 28, 1934 ¦ page 15
Woman Attorney Dashes About the Country Defending Government in Tax Cases
Assistant to Attorney General Handles Much Work on Trains
Helen Carloss Is First Women to Argue Cases Before All U.S. Courts of Appeal; Went From Teaching to Government Work
Escape! That is what Government Work represents to some women. Escape from the dull, colorless life of a small town. A school teacher have up a position in a little Mississippi town to accept an humble clerkship with the Government because she wanted to get away from teaching. She wanted to be where things were happening. Now the former school teacher and clerk is a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States.
This is the ninth in a series of articles telling of women with interesting Government positions.
By Virginia Lee Warren
