Scholarship in memory of Helen Cirese aids DePaul public interest students

By Stephen Anderson

The memory of a pioneer woman lawyer and jurist who helped colleagues during the Great Depression will provide scholarships to law students who make commitments to public interest practice.

A $50,000 pledge to the DePaul University College of Law has created a Helen M. Cirese Endowed Award in remembrance of a first-generation Italian American graduate who was admitted to the Illinois bar in February 1921, 10 months before her 21st birthday.

That year, Helen Mathilde Cerise became a charter member of the Justinian Society. She practiced civil and criminal law and soon joined Bonelli, Quilici & Cirese. In 1930, she formed a partnership with a brother, Charles C. Cirese, and in 1943 another brother, Eugene L. Cirese, joined them.

The Justinian Society has presented a Helen M. Cirese Outstanding Leadership Award in recent years to Cook County Judge Gloria G. Coco, a past president, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa M. Madigan.

Miss Cirese became active in the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and served as its president in 1930-31. A women's rights advocate, she worked for passage of a constitutional amendment to allow women to serve on juries and urged counseling for struggling marriages.

During her tenure, a WBAI Emergency Fund was established to make loans to women lawyers with financial needs and to subsidize burial expenses for members who died penniless because of the 1929 crash.

Instead of an annual banquet at the end of her term, Miss Cirese organized a card party that raised $634 for the emergency fund.

"Thanks to DePaul's willingness to admit women when many colleges would not, my aunt fulfilled her dream to be a lawyer and contribute to the advancement of women," said Helen Del Missier Hachem, a niece who made the pledge. "Through my gift, I hope to ensure that her legacy continues."

Miss Cirese was elected Oak Park justice of the peace and police magistrate in 1945, and was re-elected every four years until 1961, after a new state judicial system was in place. In 1951, she was promoted without success as a possible candidate for a new federal judgeship.

She was president of the National Association of Women Lawyers in 1939-40, and in 1949 was elected the first woman president of the West Suburban Bar Association.

The first woman to chair committees of the Chicago Bar Association, Miss Cirese headed the Committee on Defense of Poor Prisoners in 1935 and the Criminal Law Committee in 1937.

She was president of the West Area Business and Professional Women's Club from 1942 to 1944, and a volunteer on the Italian committee of the Immigrants Protective League.

"My aunt had a profound knowledge of the law, world affairs, commerce and humanity, and stood up for what she believed in," her niece said, "from encouraging young women lawyers to working for immigrant rights. And yet she always displayed a great humility about her gifts."

The library at the University of Illinois-Chicago maintains a collection of the Helen Cirese Papers from 1915 to 1974. She died Oct. 10, 1983, while still in active practice at age 83.

For information about supporting the Cirese Endowed Award, call assistant DePaul law dean Kevin Fortwendel at (312) 362-5232.

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