Mabel French fought to be first female lawyer

She won the right to personhood, the right to practice, and removed barriers for Canadian women

To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.

The first woman to earn a law degree in New Brunswick, Mabel Priscilla Penery French applied for admittance to the bar in 1905. She was told under existing Canadian law that a woman was not a person, and only a person could practice. She went to court. Six judges agreed that, indeed, whatever she was, she wasn’t a person. The chief justice huffed that if women could become lawyers, why, they might next become soldiers, police or even judges! Society, he said, didn’t need women competing with men in all branches of life. “Better let them attend to their own legitimate business.”

She responded by refusing to pay her bills. Her defence was that since she wasn’t a person, she couldn’t be sued for debt. The court had a dilemma. Money trumped exclusivity. It ruled she could be sued, but that reversed the earlier decision. So, in 1907, she became the first woman lawyer in New Brunswick.

In 1910, French decided to leave Saint John, “that sleepy old town,” and move to booming Vancouver. She soon discovered that “Go West, Young Man” enthusiasm did not extend to enlightened attitudes toward women. She prepared to do it all over again.

She was born June 4, 1881, in Saint John to Henry Stephen French and Ruth Amanda Penery. She was admitted to King’s College Law School in 1902 and obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil law, graduating with distinction, having led her class in all studies, and aced her finals. She was, the principal said, one of the brightest students he had ever met. And formidable in court, to boot.

Although she found work in Vancouver with the progressive firm of Russell, Russell and Hannington, the B.C. Law Society refused to admit her. B.C.’s courts agreed — she wasn’t a person, so she couldn’t be a lawyer.

The politically ambitious Attorney-General Bill Bowser introduced legislation removing impediments to women practising law. It swiftly passed with near unanimous support in the legislature. French became the first woman lawyer in B.C., the start of an evolution that would see women lawyers occupying the offices of prime minister, premier, justice minister and provincial Attorneys-General.

She eventually moved to London, married Hugh Travis Clay, a Yorkshireman, settled in the Channel Islands, and died on Jersey on Jan. 13, 1955.