Class of 1914: Julia Grili

Julia V. Grilli ’14 (1893–1991)
Grilli, born in New York to Italian immigrant parents, earned her law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1914 and passed the bar the same year, opening her own trial practice in the Wall Street district. A suffragist and early advocate for women’s full civic participation, she was a founder of the Brooklyn Women Lawyers Association and an organizer of its public programs alongside fellow alumnae such as Sarah Stephenson, Amy Wren, Jeannette Brill, and Helen McCormick. In 1919 she challenged Kings County’s exclusion of women from jury service, seeking a writ of mandamus to require women’s names to be added to jury lists. When Commissioner of Jurors Jacob Brenner opposed her petition, the New York Times reported her firm reply: “The right of jury duty follows the right to vote, even as the ‘Constitution follows the flag.’” Grilli also served as counsel for the Italian Welfare League and the Italian Hospital and maintained a parallel life as a trained singer who performed at community benefit concerts during WWI.