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Tell us about your law practice.
I was in a partnership with Virginia Hash (’49) and John Tomanek. Our practice did a lot of family law, probate and corporate work. We also did a lot of pro bono work. (In 2006, the Arizona Volunteer Lawyers Program awarded Alena with its Pro Bono Lifetime Achievement Award.)
In addition, Alena, Kim and Emma compared notes on their law school experiences:
How do you feel law school changed from the time you were a student to when your daughter and granddaughter attended?
Alena: There are three things that I noticed that were different between when I went to law school and when my granddaughter went 70 years later:
1) I did not have to take an entrance exam like the LSAT or any other real requirements, other than almost having a college degree. I was able to use two of my law school classes to finish my BA in Chemistry.
2) Our class size was much smaller than my granddaughter’s class. We had about 60 to 65 people in my class to start and about 40 that graduated, and we all took our classes together. My granddaughter had about 320 in her class and divided into four sections, and almost all of them graduated.
3) We had standard classes with very few electives. My granddaughter seemed to have a lot of choices, like Critical Race Theory and Animal Law.
Some similarities were that we had classes in Contracts, Torts and Criminal Law, which were the same subjects my daughter and granddaughter studied their first years. Also, we were taught using the Socratic method and had only one exam per subject.
Kim: As my mom said, basically every college graduate could get into law school when she attended, but only about two-thirds graduated and became lawyers. However, when I entered law school about 30 years later, getting into law school was more difficult, but almost everyone that started in my class graduated three years later.
Emma: I know my mom and grandma had to look cases up in books, and I’m glad we can search online now! My class was 50-55% women, while my grandma was only one of two or three women in her whole class.
What was your mother’s/grandmother’s influence on your choice to attend law school?
Kim: We had dinner together almost every night. As both of my parents were lawyers, a lot of discussions were centered around law. I cannot remember a time I did not want to be a lawyer.
Emma: My grandmother influenced me because she has always used her knowledge as a lawyer to help people. For as long as I can remember she has been providing pro bono services to members of the community. She showed me how to be independent and strong!
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