In Memoriam
Herma Hill Kay
Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law
UC Berkeley
1934-2017
Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on August 18, 1934, Herma Hill Kay joined the Berkeley Law faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960, after serving as law clerk to Chief Justice Roger Traynor of the California Supreme Court. Only the second woman ever appointed to the faculty, she served as a professor for 57 years, as dean of the law school from 1992 to 2000, and as chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate from 1972 to 1974. During her career, she was honored multiple times by both the law school and the central campus. To name only a few such awards, she received the Berkeley Faculty Service Award in 2007, the Berkeley Law Alumni Association Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, and the Berkeley Division’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1962. Overall, her colleague Professor Robert Merges perhaps said it best: “It is almost inconceivable to think of our law school without Herma. She filled every role we aspire to—mentor, teacher, scholar, leader—and did so not just well, but to the utmost. And in almost every role she was the first woman to dare to do it, and she did it all with grace, humor, tact, and quiet strength.”
Not only was Kay honored many times by UC Berkeley, in 2015 she was awarded the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Law Schools. As Justice Ginsburg noted when presenting Kay with the award, “Herma has spearheaded countless endeavors to shape the legal academy and the legal profession to serve all the people law exists (or should exist) to serve, and to make law genuinely protective of women’s capacity to chart their own life’s course. . . . I am among the legions who hold her in abiding affection and highest regard.”
A graduate of Southern Methodist University in 1956 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1959, Kay became a leading scholar in three fields of law: Conflict of Laws, Family Law, and Sex-Based Discrimination Law. As her colleague Professor Stephen Sugarman observed, “It is unusual to be a top scholar in two different fields. Herma was that rare academic who was a leading figure in at least three.” And indeed she was. As a scholar of Conflict of Laws, Kay authored some of the most important works of the second half of the twentieth century, including her lectures on governmental-interest analysis, which she was invited to deliver at the Hague Academy of International Law in 1989. As an expert in Family Law, she was a primary drafter of the California Family Law Act of 1969, the nation’s first no-fault divorce law, and the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, which has served as a template for states’ laws nationwide. And, as a Discrimination Law scholar, in 1974, Kay co-authored (with then-Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Professor Kenneth Davidson), the first casebook on Sex-Based Discrimination—a book that continues in its seventh edition today. Beyond Berkeley, Kay was a national academic leader. She served as president of the American Association of Law Schools, on the Executive Committee of the American Law Institute, and on the Executive Committee of the American Bar Foundation. She also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Equal Rights Advocates, the West Coast’s first women’s rights public interest law firm, from 1973 to 1999, including six years as chair, from 1977 to 1983.
Kay shepherded the law school through tumultuous but progressive times during her tenure as dean, from 1992 to 2000. When appointed, Kay was the first female dean of an elite American law school. In the difficult years following the passage of Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action, Kay’s tireless outreach ensured that the law school’s minority populations remained robust. As she described it, “We did it by getting everybody to convey the same message: We want you here. We are not turning our backs on people of different backgrounds and color.” Perhaps the singular achievement of her time as dean was as one of the driving forces of Berkeley’s innovative and wide-reaching clinical legal program, which allows students opportunities to work with experienced lawyers and real clients. She also provided crucial support for the establishment of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, which continues to thrive.
As a teacher, Kay was beloved, having taught many courses at the law school until the time of her death. Not only did she receive the Distinguished Teaching Award, in 2005 she was awarded the Berkeley Law Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction. Perhaps Kay’s greatest legacy is her decades-long service as a mentor of law students and young faculty, particularly women. Her colleague Professor Eleanor Swift remarked, “In her teaching, Herma opened the eyes of generations of women students at Boalt Hall to the fundamental legal issues of gender discrimination. Her mentoring of women students and young faculty opened doors to legal careers that simply did not exist before she and other women of her generation began to imagine them. The women law professors she mentored throughout her career constitute her enduring legacy to law and legal education.”
Kay also provided decades of dedicated service to UC Berkeley. In addition to two years as chair of the Berkeley Division, she served on numerous Senate committees. This service included terms on the committees on Budget and Interdepartmental Relations (member in 1979-1982 and as chair in 1982-83); Committees (1971-73); Teaching (1965-67; chair in 1967-68 and 1984-85), and Privilege and Tenure (1974-75, 1985-86 and chair in 1986-87). At the systemwide level, she served as an Academic Assembly representative (1973-76) and on the University Committee on Academic Personnel (1982-83).
Outside the law school, Kay had many hobbies, including holding her private pilot’s license, whipping around San Francisco in her yellow Jaguar, and supporting the San Francisco Giants through thick and thin (even though she defected in order to throw out a perfect first pitch at an Oakland Athletics game in 1993). She was also an accomplished gardener and an avid swimmer. Kay served on and chaired boards of numerous philanthropies, including the Russell Sage Foundation and the Rosenberg Foundation. She also served as an advisor to Senator Dianne Feinstein on judicial appointments from 1992 to 1996.
Justice Ginsburg summed it up in 2015: “Herma’s appointment to the Berkeley faculty in 1960 was a momentous event. Her persistent effort over a span nearing fifty-five years has been to make what was once momentous altogether commonplace—law faculties and student generations that reflect the full capacity, diversity, and talent of all of our people.”
Kay passed away in her San Francisco home on June 10, 2017, at the age of 82. Her husband of 39 years, Dr. Carroll Brodsky, predeceased her in 2014. She is survived by her sons, Michael, John, and Tom Brodsky, four grandchildren, and two step-granddaughters.
Andrew Bradt
2018
Not only was Kay honored many times by UC Berkeley, in 2015 she was awarded the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Law Schools. As Justice Ginsburg noted when presenting Kay with the award, “Herma has spearheaded countless endeavors to shape the legal academy and the legal profession to serve all the people law exists (or should exist) to serve, and to make law genuinely protective of women’s capacity to chart their own life’s course. . . . I am among the legions who hold her in abiding affection and highest regard.”
A graduate of Southern Methodist University in 1956 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1959, Kay became a leading scholar in three fields of law: Conflict of Laws, Family Law, and Sex-Based Discrimination Law. As her colleague Professor Stephen Sugarman observed, “It is unusual to be a top scholar in two different fields. Herma was that rare academic who was a leading figure in at least three.” And indeed she was. As a scholar of Conflict of Laws, Kay authored some of the most important works of the second half of the twentieth century, including her lectures on governmental-interest analysis, which she was invited to deliver at the Hague Academy of International Law in 1989. As an expert in Family Law, she was a primary drafter of the California Family Law Act of 1969, the nation’s first no-fault divorce law, and the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, which has served as a template for states’ laws nationwide. And, as a Discrimination Law scholar, in 1974, Kay co-authored (with then-Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Professor Kenneth Davidson), the first casebook on Sex-Based Discrimination—a book that continues in its seventh edition today. Beyond Berkeley, Kay was a national academic leader. She served as president of the American Association of Law Schools, on the Executive Committee of the American Law Institute, and on the Executive Committee of the American Bar Foundation. She also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Equal Rights Advocates, the West Coast’s first women’s rights public interest law firm, from 1973 to 1999, including six years as chair, from 1977 to 1983.
Kay shepherded the law school through tumultuous but progressive times during her tenure as dean, from 1992 to 2000. When appointed, Kay was the first female dean of an elite American law school. In the difficult years following the passage of Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action, Kay’s tireless outreach ensured that the law school’s minority populations remained robust. As she described it, “We did it by getting everybody to convey the same message: We want you here. We are not turning our backs on people of different backgrounds and color.” Perhaps the singular achievement of her time as dean was as one of the driving forces of Berkeley’s innovative and wide-reaching clinical legal program, which allows students opportunities to work with experienced lawyers and real clients. She also provided crucial support for the establishment of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, which continues to thrive.
As a teacher, Kay was beloved, having taught many courses at the law school until the time of her death. Not only did she receive the Distinguished Teaching Award, in 2005 she was awarded the Berkeley Law Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction. Perhaps Kay’s greatest legacy is her decades-long service as a mentor of law students and young faculty, particularly women. Her colleague Professor Eleanor Swift remarked, “In her teaching, Herma opened the eyes of generations of women students at Boalt Hall to the fundamental legal issues of gender discrimination. Her mentoring of women students and young faculty opened doors to legal careers that simply did not exist before she and other women of her generation began to imagine them. The women law professors she mentored throughout her career constitute her enduring legacy to law and legal education.”
Kay also provided decades of dedicated service to UC Berkeley. In addition to two years as chair of the Berkeley Division, she served on numerous Senate committees. This service included terms on the committees on Budget and Interdepartmental Relations (member in 1979-1982 and as chair in 1982-83); Committees (1971-73); Teaching (1965-67; chair in 1967-68 and 1984-85), and Privilege and Tenure (1974-75, 1985-86 and chair in 1986-87). At the systemwide level, she served as an Academic Assembly representative (1973-76) and on the University Committee on Academic Personnel (1982-83).
Outside the law school, Kay had many hobbies, including holding her private pilot’s license, whipping around San Francisco in her yellow Jaguar, and supporting the San Francisco Giants through thick and thin (even though she defected in order to throw out a perfect first pitch at an Oakland Athletics game in 1993). She was also an accomplished gardener and an avid swimmer. Kay served on and chaired boards of numerous philanthropies, including the Russell Sage Foundation and the Rosenberg Foundation. She also served as an advisor to Senator Dianne Feinstein on judicial appointments from 1992 to 1996.
Justice Ginsburg summed it up in 2015: “Herma’s appointment to the Berkeley faculty in 1960 was a momentous event. Her persistent effort over a span nearing fifty-five years has been to make what was once momentous altogether commonplace—law faculties and student generations that reflect the full capacity, diversity, and talent of all of our people.”
Kay passed away in her San Francisco home on June 10, 2017, at the age of 82. Her husband of 39 years, Dr. Carroll Brodsky, predeceased her in 2014. She is survived by her sons, Michael, John, and Tom Brodsky, four grandchildren, and two step-granddaughters.
Andrew Bradt
2018
