On September 24, 1920, Miss Ada L. Sawyer, the personal secretary of RI Bar member Percy Winchester Gardner, sat for the Rhode Island Bar exam. She did so without the benefit of attending college or law school. She was the only woman in the room. Of the 22 people taking the bar exam that day, 12 passed. Among them was Miss Ada Sawyer. She was the only one of those who passed who had not gone to either college or law school. The 12 new lawyers were notified in November, and on November 14, 1920, the Providence Journal published an article about the first woman lawyer to be admitted to the state's bar. That paper dubbed Miss Sawyer the "Providence Portia".
In 1920, many states, including Rhode Island, still allowed its applicants to "read" the law. This process entailed spending three years under the tutelage of a member of the bar after filing a registration with the bar association. Percy W. Gardner was Ada Sawyer's employer and tutor. However, when Ada went to take the exam, the board of bar examiners balked. After all, the rules stated that any person could read the law. Was a woman a person? They required a letter from Supreme Court Associate Justice (and later Chief Judge) William H. Sweetland that .... "After consideration, we are of the opinion that the word "person " contained in the rules regulating the admission of attorneys and counselors should be construed to include a woman as well as a man .... " Since Ada L. Sawyer was found to be a person, she could sit for the exam.
Ada Sawyer had gone to work for Percy Gardner on the day after she graduated from the English High School in 1909. She had been the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook The Brown Owl. She was one of four students who graduated with honors out of a class of 40 students. Ada was 17 years old. In 1909, women were still unable to vote, nor could they control their property. In Rhode Island, the Royal Mill, the Jackson Mill, and Quidwick Mill were still employing children as young as 11 and 12 years old.
In 1909, there were only 1,000 women lawyers in the whole of the United States. (See the article “The Women’s Rebellion” The Saturday Evening Post, June 1909)
A girl graduating from a high school in 1909, even a top student, had few options. Ada was not a child of privilege, and her father was not a lawyer but a modest working man with four daughters. There was no question of college for Ada.
Percy Gardner moved into the Turk's Head Building in 1911 when it opened, with Ada as his secretary. When she passed the bar exam, her name went on the door: Gardner & Sawyer. Their names were still on that door, along with the names of their younger partners, James Sloan, and Robert Gates, until the early 2000s.
Ada recognized early on that the law and lawyers were not always kind to women. She opined in an interview with the Evening Bulletin on April 7, 1921, "It may be interesting to know that there have been twice as many women as men to consult me; and that those of my own sex who have come to me, not only have evinced confidence in me, but have preferred to talk with a woman rather than a man. " The interviewer also asked Miss Sawyer about women serving on juries, for which RI Supreme Court Justice Hahn considered women to be unfit. While Ada demurred from giving an opinion because her only trials thus far had been with a judge sitting without a jury, she stated, "and until I knew more of the workings of the minds of men jurors, I could not compare them with my idea of what women might do. As far as their mentality is concerned, however, I think that the average woman compares very favorably with the average man juror.
By the time Ada Sawyer was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1925, she was the President of the RI Federation of Women's Clubs, a member of the Women's Republican Club (to which she was the legal adviser), the Gaspee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Four Leaf Clover Club and the Providence Plantations Club.
Ada Sawyer often lectured area organizations. As early as January 1937, she told the Barrington Unit of the RI League of Women Voters that the current laws regarding marriage, divorce, guardianship, and property rights were unfair to women. She told them that the special commission set up in 1926 to revise the marriage laws had not accomplished anything.
Governor Pothier gave Ada an opportunity to have a direct impact when he named her to the RI Children's Laws Commission. This commission was part of the move to reform the RI Labor laws relating to minors. Miss Sawyer had drafted the bill creating that commission. She helped to liberalize this state’s child labor laws.
Ada Sawyer certainly impacted the practice of Law in Rhode Island at a time when many women were just getting used to the idea of being able to vote. Her involvement and influence went far beyond the courtroom, however. She was a member of the Wakefield Area Advisory Board of the (then) Industrial National Bank, a corporator of the Citizens Savings Bank, and a director of seven other Rhode Island corporations.
In addition, she was a corporation member of Rhode Island Hospital, the Bethany Home of Rhode Island, and the Hattie Ide Chaffee Home. She was a director of the RI Tuberculosis and Health Association. Ada Sawyer's energy made her a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, the Providence Preservation Society, Friends of the Park Museum, the Rhode Island Association for Mental Health, the Rhode Island League of Nursing, the English-Speaking Union, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Providence Plantations Club.
The missions of these organizations were to provide services to those marginalized and overlooked by society and to preserve the buildings and heritage of Rhode Island. Achieving these missions with funding from private donations alone was not an easy task, but it was one that Ada could be relied upon to work towards.
All of this time, Ada Sawyer and Percy Gardner were trying cases dealing with the banking industry in front of the RI Supreme Court. While Judge Hahn may not have thought women were fit to serve on a jury, he wrote a dissenting opinion in favor of Miss Sawyer's client in the case of Gilmore v. Prior 52 RI 395, 161 A 137 (1932) (We have no indication on his feelings about women practicing law) In all, Ada Sawyer brought thirteen cases to the RI Supreme Court between 1921 and 1959 as either counsel or litigant. The decisions read like a "Who's Who" of Rhode Island practitioners.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Brown University that she received in June of 1964 came with the following citation: "Your quiet example has inspired others to follow your path and has helped to bring about equality in fact as well as theory. We honor what you represent and what you have done privately and publicly to serve your clients and your community. '
Ada L. Sawyer retired from the practice of law in February of 1983. She started in 1909 as a stenographer and became a lawyer at a time when few women could aspire to do so. By her death on May 13, 1985, Ada had seen women fill the roles of RI Secretary of State and Attorney General. She had seen women become both lawyers and judges.
We are the younger sisters who followed the trail that she blazed for us.
