Dolores K. Sloviter, retired federal chief judge, celebrated Temple professor, and trailblazing attorney, has died at 90

Dolores K. Sloviter, 90, of Philadelphia, retired chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, innovative former Temple University law professor, trailblazing attorney, and fiery women’s advocate, died Wednesday, Oct. 12, of dementia at Lankenau Medical Center.

Judge Sloviter was the first woman to both serve on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and ascend to chief judge. The fourth woman to serve on any U.S. Circuit Court, she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, was chief judge from 1991 to 1998, and retired in 2016 as senior judge.

She was routinely referred to as the first female partner at a Philadelphia law firm in the 1960s and the city’s first female law professor in the 1970s, and she championed women’s rights for the rest of her life. She was involved in hundreds of high-profile cases over half a century as an attorney and judge, and influenced consequential rulings on manufacturing price fixing, the free speech provisions of the First Amendment, the Abscam convictions, and big-name corporate antitrust lawsuits.

Michael A. Chagares, chief judge of the Third Circuit, called Judge Sloviter “brilliant, fearless.” He said she “inspired generations of women to follow in her footsteps as lawyers and judges.” Another colleague called her a “titan in the law.”

Judge Sloviter also updated court regulations for complex litigation cases and improved welfare rights and community legal services for the elderly and incarcerated. Most notably, many said, she organized a task force that developed recommendations to address racial and gender inequity in the courts.

An expert and frequent lecturer on the history of women in the legal profession, she said in a 1991 speech: “For a long time, I felt like a token appointment as the first woman on the then 90-year history of the Third Circuit until I read that my counterpart, Judge Patricia Wald of the D.C. Circuit, said that we were not tokens — but beacons.”

In 1999, she celebrated 20 years on the federal bench and, as her portrait was unveiled at the U.S. Courthouse in Center City, told a packed house of 200: “How important is a portrait? Maybe it’s not important at all. But maybe it will serve in some small measure to help ensure that we will continue and not retreat from the road on which we started 20 years ago.”

Judge Sloviter was one of eight women to graduate in the University of Pennsylvania law school’s class of 1956 and worked at first with what was then Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, and Kohn. She joined the faculty at Temple’s Law School, now the Beasley School of Law, in 1972, modernized the admissions protocol, created new classes, and taught antitrust law and civil procedure.

Later, she oversaw Temple’s groundbreaking Federal Judicial Clerkship Clinical Honors Program, and the school presents an annual Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter Award for academic excellence. “She gave so much of her energy and time to help law students,” a former student said in a tribute. “I’m very grateful to her.”

Judge Sloviter won many awards, including the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 1997 Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Award for outstanding service, and became the first federal judge to receive the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Judicial Award in 1994. She was on the board of the National Constitution Center and a member of the American Law Institute, and the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women.

“She had a reputation for being really tough,” said her daughter Vikki. “But that was because she wanted to be respected, not liked, and she demanded the best from everyone around her.”

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Born Sept. 5, 1932, in Philadelphia, Dolores Korman graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Temple in 1953, and, inspired by Clarence Darrow, went to what is now Penn Carey Law School and served on the Law Review. She met Penn professor Henry Sloviter through a mutual friend, and they married in 1969, adopted their daughter, and lived in Fitler Square and Society Hill. He died earlier.

Away from work, Judge Sloviter enjoyed spending time at the Jersey Shore, was an avid Eagles and Temple basketball fan, and was thrilled when she met Temple men’s coach John Chaney. She liked to read, listen to classical music, go to the ballet with her daughter, and relax with her cats.

She talked often of a recruiter at Penn who doubted she would be accepted into law school and, if she was, would never amount to much. “She was accepted,” her daughter said, “and proved him wrong for the next 60 years.”

In addition to her daughter, Judge Sloviter is survived by four grandchildren and other relatives.

A private celebration of her life is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to Dolores K. Sloviter Prize Fund at the University of Pennsylvania, Office of the Treasurer, P.O. Box 71332, Philadelphia, Pa. 19176, and the Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter Fellowship Fund at Temple University, 1719 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19122.