Judith Vladeck, 83; litigated sex bias suits against Wall Street

Judith Vladeck, 83, whose sex discrimination cases against Wall Street companies opened the U.S. financial services industry to women, died Tuesday in New York of complications from an infection, according to Kevin Mintzer, a partner in the law firm she co-founded.

Among Vladeck’s most prominent cases was her 1983 victory on behalf of female employees at Western Electric. At the time, it was the largest equal-pay case decided in favor of female plaintiffs, her firm said in a statement.

She was the initial lawyer for Pamela Martens, who sued Smith Barney in the case chronicled by the book “Tales From the Boom-Boom Room: Women vs. Wall Street.” Vladeck won a settlement that created a $6-million executive training program for women at Chase Manhattan Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

A native of Norfolk, Va., Vladeck received a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in New York in 1945 and a law degree from Columbia University in 1947. “I went to work for the only law firm that would hire me,” recalled Vladeck, one of 26 women in a graduating class of 174. She eventually became a partner with Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, which specializes in union labor and civil liberties law.