# Phi Delta Delta

Phi Delta Delta (ΦΔΔ) was a women's professional law fraternity founded in November 1911 at the University of Southern California. It merged with Phi Alpha Delta in 1972.

## History

Phi Delta Delta Legal Sorority was founded at the Law School of the University of Southern California on November 11, 1911. Its founders were Georgia Bullock, Gladys Morre Brown, Sarah Patten Doherty, Annette Fillius Hunley, and Vere Radir-Norton. Its purpose was "to promote a higher standard of professional ethics and culture among women in law schools and the legal profession." Phi Delta Delta Legal Fraternity was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in California on October 25, 1912.
The fraternity went national with the opening of its Beta chapter at the Washington College of Law and Gamma chapter at the Chicago-Kent College of Law in April 1913. This was followed by the Delta chapter at the University of Oregon Law School in 1914. Phi Delta Delta held its first national convention in Los Angeles on August 20–22, 1917 with delegates from Alpha, Delta, and Epsilon chapters.
The fraternity's publication was The Phi Delta Delta. It was established at the fraternity's first convention in 1917 as an annual publication. Initially, it was called Oak Leaves and was edited by a member of the Zeta chapter. At the fraternity's second convention, the publication's frequency was changed to semiannual, along with the name change to The Phi Delta Delta. Its frequency became quarterly after the fraternity's third convention in 1924.
Phi Delta Delta became an international fraternity in 1926 with the establishment of the Omega chapter at the Vancouver School of Law in Vancouver, Canada in January 1926. It also added chapters in Cuba, England, and South America. By March 1926, it was the largest legal sorority in the United States. The fraternity eventually expanded to include 5,000 members and 68 chapters in the United States and Canada.
Phi Delta Delta created an endowment fund that provided loans to students in their last year of law school. In addition, it provided scholarship keys at graduation for scholastic excellence in law school.
Each year at the American Bar Association conference, Phi Delta Delta sponsored a breakfast for deans of law schools, judges, prominent members of the association, and fraternity members. The fraternity also had a speakers bureau on its research interests, including coordinating council movement, juvenile delinquency, legislation impacting women, the probation and parole system, restatement of the law, and taxation.

## Merger

In 1970, the all-male legal fraternity Phi Alpha Delta amended its constitution to accept female members. In 1971, Phi Delta Delta began negotiating a merger with Phi Alpha Delta. Both fraternities held conventions in San Diego on August 9–12, 1972. Phi Delta Delta and Phi Alpha Delta reached a merger agreement on August 12, 1972. At this time, all members of Phi Delta Delta became members of Phi Alpha Delta. Its chapters were renamed when they merged into Phi Alpha Delta.
Archival records of Phi Alpha Delta are stored in the special collections of the Charles E. Young Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Washburn University School of Law.

## Symbols

The colors of Phi Delta Delta were old rose and violet. Its official flowers were the rose and the violet. Its jewel was the pearl.
The fraternity's badge was a flat-topped kite of black enamel, with an anagram of the Greek letters Φ, Δ and Δ, grouped so that the two Deltas appeared as the twin pans of a balance scale.

## Chapters

All chapters are now inactive, most having merged into Phi Alpha Delta.

## Notable members

| Name | Chapter | Notability |
| Edith Atkinson | Rho | judge |
| Othilia Carroll Beals | Epsilon | lawyer and judge |
| Georgia Bullock | Alpha | first female Superior Court judge in California |
| Litta Belle Hibbon Campbell | Alpha | attorney, professor, and the first female deputy district attorney in the United States |
| H. Alberta Colclaser | Pi | aviation lawyer and foreign service officer |
| Lucile Atcherson Curtis | | first woman appointed as a United States Diplomatic Officer |
| Harriet Daggett | Alpha Tau | attorney and professor |
| Mercedes Deiz | Xi | judge |
| Oda Faulconer | Alpha | lawyer, judge, and the president of the Bank of Italy |
| Zula Inez Ferguson | Iota | advertising manager at Blackstone's |
| Betty Binns Fletcher | Epsilon | United States circuit judge |
| Marion Janet Harron | Beta Beta | lawyer and United States Tax Court judge |
| Sybil Holmes | Eta | politician and the first woman elected to the Massachusetts Senate |
| Lucy Somerville Howorth | Beta Gamma | lawyer, politician, and the first woman to serve in the Mississippi Legislature |
| Shirley Hufsteler | Beta Delta, Los Angeles Alumnae chapter | attorney, judge, and United States Secretary of Education |
| Reba Hurn | Epsilon | lawyer and Washington state legislator |
| May Darlington Lahey | Alpha | lawyer, judge, first Australian woman to serve as a judge |
| Manche Irene Langley | Xi | lawyer and professor at Pacific University |
| Mary Florence Lathrop | | lawyer |
| Mildred Lillie | Beta Beta | justice, Court of Appeals of the State of California |
| Annabel Matthews | Gamma | judge of the United States Board of Tax Appeals |
| Margaret M. McChesney | Eta | lawyer |
| Mary O'Toole | Beta | U.S. District Court judge, first woman municipal judge of the United States |
| Ruth Bryan Owen | | U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Envoy to Denmark, pioneering filmmaker |
| Emma Fall Schofield | | judge |
| Orfa Jean Shontz | Alpha | lawyer and judge |
| Sara Soffel | Lambda | lawyer and judge |
| Mary Jane Spurlin | Xi | judge |
| F. Josephine Stevenson | Alpha | lawyer |
| Martha Ware | Eta | district court judge |
| Ida V. Wells | Alpha | lawyer |
| Reah Whitehead | Epsilon | lawyer and justice of the peace |
| Mabel Walker Willebrandt | Alpha | U.S. Assistant Attorney General |