Buttenwieser, Helen L.

Lawyer, civil libertarian, and children's rights advocate Helen (Lehman) Buttenwieser (1905-1989) was the first woman admitted to the City Bar Association in New York and the first chairwoman of the Legal Aid Society. The daughter of Arthur and Adele (Lewisohn) Lehman, she attended Connecticut College and the New York School of Social Work before being appointed commissioner of the Board of Child Welfare in New York City in 1930. She graduated from New York University School of Law in 1936, founded her own office, and practiced law in Manhattan for fifty years. The chair of the New York City Committee on Adoptions, Buttenwieser often served as a pro bono lawyer for children's aid organizations. She was a member of the Legal Aid Society for more than fifty years and was a trustee of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She married Benjamin Buttenwieser in 1929; they had four children.

Helen (Lehman) Buttenwieser, lawyer, civil libertarian, children's rights advocate, social worker, and philanthropist, was born on October 8, 1905, in New York City. She was the second of three daughters of Adele (Lewisohn) and Arthur Lehman (AL), members of two of the leading German-Jewish families in the city. ALL's father, Adolph Lewisohn, made a fortune in copper and the shipping of mining products, and was a leader in prison reform. AL's father, Mayer Lehman, was a founder of the New York Cotton Exchange, a partner in Lehman Brothers bank, and the father of three prominent sons: AL, a banker; Herbert, elected governor of New York and later to the U.S. Senate; and Irving, chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals.

After attending Horace Mann School in the city, HLB entered Connecticut College for Women (now Connecticut College) in 1923. Mathematics was her favorite subject, but she was neither challenged by nor interested in the rest of the curriculum and left during her junior year to accompany her parents on a trip around the world. Upon her return she went to work at the Hudson Guild in Hell's Kitchen, a poor, immigrant neighborhood on Manhattan's West Side. This was the beginning of a long, active and successful career in New York City, reflected in the following chronology:

HLB was, in her own words, a "...specialist in matrimonial problems, custody disputes, and in representing child care agencies and the children under their care" (affidavit, Jan. 7, 1981: see #1 in the collection). She was chairman of the New York City Committee on Adoptions and was particularly concerned with handicapped and foster children; the Buttenwiesers acted as foster parents for many children.

In addition to the organizations noted above, HLB was also a member of the American Bar Association, New York Women's Bar Association, and New York County Lawyers' Association; she was an investor in The Nation, an occasional lecturer at the schools of social work of Fordham and Columbia universities, a labor arbitrator, and president of the N.Y. Federation of Jewish Charities. Connecticut College and Brandeis University conferred honorary degrees on HLB.

HLB died in New York City on November 22, 1989.