For the past several years, women have made up the majority of law school classes. Last year, women made up the majority of law firm associates for the first time, and the number of women in partner positions in law firms has steadily grown over the past few decades, according to the National Association for Law Placement. But it’s been a long road to a more representative legal profession, a road that Mary Brickner, one of the first female partners in Colorado, helped to build.
Brickner’s early years were spent on a farm in Burlington, Iowa. She initially dreamed of becoming a journalist, but the onset of the Great Depression forced a change in plans. Her first stint in the legal profession was as a legal secretary in Wyoming, before a move to Denver to join Fairfield and Woods as Jim Woods’ legal secretary.
Brickner spent 16 years working as a legal secretary for Wood. During that time, she would earn an accounting degree from the University of Denver and pass the certified public accountant’s exam, then shift her attention to becoming a lawyer in her own right. She started law school at the University of Denver in 1948, taking night classes and working for Fairfield and Woods during the day.
Brickner became an attorney in 1958, specializing as an estate administrator and probate lawyer. Not only did she become an attorney when she completed her law degree, she also became the only woman in Colorado with both a certified public accountant’s license and a law degree. Just six years later, she was made partner with Fairfield and Woods.
Her work ethic wasn’t just focused on her job. Brickner was active in and around the Denver community. She served as director of Denver Girls Inc., director and officer of the Zonta Club of Denver, president of the Denver chapter of the American Society of Women Accountants, president of the Kappa Beta Pi legal sorority and was the first woman to head the Denver Estate Planning Council.
Brickner remained at Fairfield and Woods until her retirement at 72. In 1992, she was awarded with the second annual Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award, which the Colorado Women’s Bar Association presents to “an outstanding female attorney(s) who has enriched the community through her legal and civic activities,” according to the CWBA’s website.