NOTED WOMAN LAWYER

Southland Times, Issue 20641, 13 November 1928, Page 14

NOTED WOMAN LAWYER

IN THE NATION'S SPOTLIGHT. MRS. WILLERBRANDT’S CAREER. New York, September 19. Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt is one of the most discussed, highly-praised and reviled individuals in the United States. As Assistant-Attorney-General of the United States, and especially assigned to prohibition, she is just now in the spotlight of the whole nation. Born in Kansas of English stock, Mrs. Willebrandt commenced her career as a teacher, graduating in law at the University of California. In 1915 she organized a plan for the Public Defender of Los Angeles for the defence of women charged with crime. Her services here brought her under the notice of President Harding, who appointed her Assistant-Attorney-General. When she first came under national observation two pears ago, Mrs. Willebrandt undertook the prosecution of bootleggers, rum-runners and hi-jackers, in connection with the Federal Smuggling Commission which co-operated with a similar commission appointed by the Canadian Government. In this duty on one occasion she travelled by air from Seattle, on the Pacific Coast to New York and back, to secure further evidence and instructions. Mrs. Willebrandt was brought more visibly before the public at the recent Republician Convention, which appointed her chairwoman of the credentials committee, a position which is not second in importance to any at a national convention. Her successful defence of the committee’s repori was one of the most aggressive and brilliant speeches in the convention. She is regarded as being not merely one of the woman leaders of the Republican Party, nor a political-social totem pole around which women’s clubs may gravitate, but as an acknowledged authority in the inside circle of the party. Mrs. Willebrandt is still a young woman, in the middle thirties. Her only child, now five years old, shares with her interests, mainly political, which are expected, should the Republican regime be continued, to bring her one day to a seat in the Cabinet at Washington.