Portia School of Law began in 1908 when two women who wanted to take the Massachusetts bar examination asked Attorney Arthur W. MacLean to tutor them. His wife, Bertha MacLean, named the nascent school after “Portia” who disguises herself as a lawyer in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. The informal school expanded and became the only school providing legal education for women exclusively. In 1920 the first L.L.B. degrees were awarded to thirty-nine women.
In 1923, Blanche Woodson Braxton (1894-1939), a graduate of Portia Law in 1921, became the first African American woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. She later became the first African American woman admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court in the state. Portia Law changed its name to New England School of Law in 1969. The first woman president of the Board of Trustees of New England School of Law was Anna E. Hirsch (1902-97), a 1928 graduate of Portia Law. Hirsch was elected register of probate for Norfolk County in 1954 and 1960.
