Editorial: Judge Phyllis Kravitch - Kravitch made a difference

Judge Phyllis Kravitch, who died Thursday in Atlanta, was a distinguished judicial trailblazer who served as Chatham County's first female Superior Court judge before going to the federal appellate bench.

It was a coincidence that she and U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob died during the same week. Both were legal lions. Heaven must have had a backlog of cases that needed to be cleared by the finest minds around.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot, who along with Chatham County Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann, followed the path blazed by Judge Kravitch remembered the late jurist as "a role model who blazed trails for all of us."

"She was a tiny, single, Jewish woman in a world dominated by men. She never let that hold her back," Judge Abbot said. "She worked harder, read more law and brought all her inestimable skills to every case she handled as a lawyer and a judge."

Judge Kravitch died early Thursday at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. She was 96.

In addition to being the first locally elected female judge - and the first elected female Superior Court judge in Georgia - Kravitch was President Jimmy Carter's first female appointee to a federal appellate court post in 1979. She was initially appointed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then moved to the newly formed 11th U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 1, 1981.

She was the third female federal appeals judge nationally and remained active even as a senior judge until about a year ago.

"When I came to the Superior Court bench, Judge Kravitch was already a legend,"Freesemann said. "I laugh saying this because she was so small, but she was big shoes to fill. She will be missed."

Judge Kravitch may have been small in stature, but she had a tremendous mind and a huge heart, especially for the weak and powerless.

The daughter of noted Savannah defense lawyer Aaron Kravitch, she attended law school at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1943. She wanted to go to Harvard, but that school would not admit women. After graduation, she sought work at law firms in New York and Philadelphia but was turned away because of her gender or, in at least one case, because she was Jewish. So she returned to Savannah to practice law with her original mentor, her father, who also taught her that everyone deserves equal treatment under the law, a novel concept back in those days, when African-Americans and women were viewed as second-class citizens.

She joined her father's law firm, focusing on defending the poor and minorities as one of the first female trial lawyers in the Deep South.

"Judge Kravitch shared her father's view that lawyers must make a difference," New York University law professor Jennifer Arlen, a former Kravitch clerk, wrote in a 1996 Georgia State University Law Review tribute.

She did exactly as her father wanted and she became a leading domestic relations attorney, in addition to her work with the Chatham County Board of Education from 1949-55. During her tenure on the school board, she worked to equalize salaries between male and female teachers and between African-Americans and whites. In a system still legally segregated, she advocated for improving the dilapidated schools attended by black children.

While on the Superior Court bench, Judge Kravitch was instrumental in establishing the rape-crisis center and family shelter for battered woman. With these two organizations, she leaves a powerful legacy that will live on.

Perhaps one of her biggest local rulings came in 1978. That year, she ruled that Chatham County was obligated under contracts with the Chatham County Hospital Authority to pay medical care rendered to indigent patients at then-Memorial Medical Center (now Memorial University Medical Center).

Her ruling did not set monetary sums owed under the contracts, but hospital officials contended the county had failed to reimburse the hospital for the past five years at a shortfall of more than $4.5 million. This was a significant decision that helped Memorial establish itself as the go-to hospital in Savannah for people with serious medical problems, regardless of their ability to pay.

In 1973, Judge Kravitch broke the long string of male dominance when she became the first female president of the Savannah Bar Association and, after practicing law for 25 years, won election to the Superior Court bench in 1976. She took office Jan. 1, 1977.

Savannah attorney Pat O'Connor, who recently completed his tour as State Bar of Georgia president, spoke for many when he said: "In the 101 years since women were first authorized to practice law in Georgia, Judge Phyllis Kravitch was one of the finest, most admired lawyers and judges this state has seen, regardless of gender."

Indeed, she was a fine lawyer and fine judge, period. She brought great credit and distinction to the practice of law in Savannah and in Georgia. But more than that, she made a big difference.