Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum
575 3rd Street NorthwestBefore there was the Notorious RBG, there was the Audacious Bessie Margolin (b. 1909-d. 1996). Marlene Trestman, Margolin’s biographer, will delve into Margolin’s remarkable life, her legal career in the nation’s capital, and the trail she blazed for countless women lawyers. Trestman will be in conversation with Senior Judge Beryl A. Howell, former Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Through a life that spanned the 20th century, Supreme Court advocate Bessie Margolin shaped modern American labor policy and opened doors for female lawyers in the nation’s highest courts. She rose from humble beginnings in New Orleans’s Jewish orphanage, where she learned lessons in social justice that shaped her into one of Washington’s most influential attorneys.
As a U.S Department of Labor attorney from 1939-1972, boasting law degrees from Tulane and Yale, Margolin made her mark on the biggest issues of her day. She was the only woman on the legal team that kept FDR’s New Deal alive; she shepherded new federal laws to prohibit child labor and require minimum wages; and, after drafting rules for the Nazi war crimes trials following WWII, argued 24 times at the United States Supreme Court (winning 21 of those cases) to protect American workers. However, despite her innumerable successes, her greatest career disappointment was being passed over for a federal judgeship. Regardless, to this day only seven female lawyers have argued in front of the Supreme Court more times than Margolin.
In partnership with the Supreme Court Historical Society
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Lawyer-turned-author Marlene Trestman has written two books, both inspired by personal experience. Orphaned at age 11, Trestman grew up in New Orleans as a foster care client of the agency that formerly ran the Jewish Orphans’ Home where Bessie Margolin was raised. The two established a close relationship while Trestman attended college and law school, and later through her legal career. Margolin inspired her future biographer to write this book, and the first comprehensive history of their shared orphanage.
A New Orleans native now living in Baltimore, Trestman has won prizes and grants for her writing from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Supreme Court Historical Society, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the American Jewish Archives, the Texas Jewish Historical Society, the Southern Jewish Historical Society, and the American Jewish Press Association.
Judge Beryl A. Howell has served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since 2011, including as Chief Judge from 2016 until March 2023. She took senior status in February 2024. Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Howell worked in private practice, the legal academy, and in all three branches of the federal government. She served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, general counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, two terms as a Commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and executive managing director and general counsel of a cybersecurity and digital forensics consulting firm. Judge Howell has been a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Judicial Conference Committees on Information Technology and on Criminal Law. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Like Trestman and Margolin, Judge Howell spent her formative high school years living in New Orleans.
Image credit: Promotional photos provided courtesy of the speakers.
Thu, Jun 4, 2026 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum
575 3rd Street Northwest
The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum collects, preserves, and shares the diverse stories of Jewish history and culture in the National Capital Region. Through exhibitions and programs, we build connections across generations and communities, encourage reflection on the relevance of the past to today, and inspire civic and community engagement.
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