Evening star., 1941-10-05
Young Woman Attorney Wins
Success in Cultural Field
Mary Agnes Brown
Is Specialist in
Lutin Affairs
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.


A career that has brought her to
the top in her particular field is only
one achievement of Miss Mary
Agnes Brown. one of five women
attorneys in the solicitors Office of
the Veterans Administration.
This young Washingtonian. one of
the few woman experts in her legal
field, has made herself also a spe-
cialist in Latin American affairs.
A linguist to whom Spanish presents
no conversational barriers, she has
travelled extensively in Latin Amer
ican countries and has pursued ad-
vance study at the University of
Mexico in both law and cultural
subjects. Her services are frequent
ly enlisted by governmental and pri-
vate agencies.
From the days when she was on
debating teams at Central High
School and at the George Wash
ington University. this soft-voiced,
broWn-eyed Portia knew she wanted
to be a lawyer and was eager to
study Spanish and life in Latin
America.
Her career and her interest in re-
publicS to the south have continued
to parallel each other, the happy
fulfllment of her girlhood hopes
and plans.
Candidate for Doctors Degree.
Miss Brown holds B. A. and IL. B
degrees from the George Washing
ton University and is a candidate
for its doctor of juridical science,
which will be awarded for the first
time in the institutions history at
its February % convocation.
Like other successful career Wom-
en- in Washington, Miss Brown made
a secretarial position the ladder to
her present position. She was sec
retary to the medical director of the
Veterans Administration while she
was studying law. She was appoint
ed to the solicitors Office 10 years
ago.
An authority on legislation per-
tanning TO veterans affairs, she
drafts bills relating to them and
prepares digests of congressional
legislation affecting them.
She was assistant editor of Fed
eral Laws Relating to Veterans OF
Wars of the United States" which
is a compilation of laws affecting
veterans and their dependents, pub
lished as Senate Document No. 131
of the Seventy-secondC Congress.
In addition to being vice president
of the Womens Bar Association. she
is a member of the District of Co.
lumbia bar. Federal bar and bar of
the Supreme Court of the United
States, having been admitted to
practice before the highest tribunal
October 7, 1885. the first day it met
in its new building. At the first
meeting Of the Inter-American As
sociation, held in Havana, Cuba. she
served as a delegate from the Amer
ican Bar Association. the Federal
bar and the women's bar.
Flew to Mexico to Study.
Last summer Miss Brown flew to
Mexico City and back primarily to
attend the regular sessions of the
law school of the University of Mex
leo, founded in 1541. and one of the
oldest on the American continent
Here, she was the only "gringo' in
a class of 80 in Mexican constitu-
tional law, although there were
seven Mexican women in this group
This ratio" she said, ''is about the
same proportion of women as is tc
be found in the law schools of the
United States"
In Mexican law classes" Miss
Brown said, "the professor lectures
the entire period, as distinguished
from the study of law cases which
is the prevalent practice in most
of our law classes in the United
States Once a week. though, en-
tirely without warning, he spends
one of the periods thoroughly quiz
zing his students, which is a power
full incentive not to get behind on
ones reading or familiarity with
ones notes. From a comparative
point Of view, the Mexican system
of law is not built on judicial sys-
TENS, as is the case with Anglo
Saxon law, but rather upon codes
going back to Roman law for its
roots"
Miss Brown found there were about
so women practicing law in Mexico
City and that they were facing the
same problems that women lawyers
in the United States have faced
"the principal difference being that
our women lawyers have been in
the profession longer than their
Mexican sisters and have gradually
overcome many obstacles which still
confront women generally south Of
the Rio Grande."
1t is her opinion that through
their organization, United Front fol-
Women's Rights, Mexican women
are learning to consolidate their ef-
forts toward the equal opportunities
which the women of the United
States take for granted. Estab-
lished in 1885, with headquarters in
Mexico City, it is designed to CEN
trallze the work of hundreds OF
Mexican Women's organizations and
includes over 800 of these in its