Associate Justice Raya S. Dreben
Born in Vienna, Austria, Raya Dreben, came to the United States when she was nine months old. She graduated from Radcliffe College magna cum laude in 1949 and from Harvard Law School cum laude in 1954, where she was in the second class of women graduating from that law school. When Bailey Aldrich was appointed a judge of the United States District Court, she became his first law clerk. She was a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School in 1955-1956 and thereafter engaged in private practice at a number of firms. She joined the law firm of Palmer & Dodge (now Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP) in 1964, and in 1969 she and another associate became the first women part-time partners at a major Boston law firm. She taught copyright law at Harvard Law School for a number of years while at Palmer & Dodge and was appointed to the Appeals Court by Governor Michael Dukakis in 1979, serving the court as Associate Justice until she retired in 1997. Thereafter, Justice Dreben served the Appeals Court in a recall capacity until leaving the bench completely in 2011. She has served as trustee of several organizations, including Radcliffe College, and has received the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award from the Boston Bar Association.