Doreen Mendelson, one of the first hundred women to graduate in law from the University of Glasgow was born in Glasgow on 24th March 1929 to Bessie and Jack Mendelson, an outfitter. She was one of four siblings sharing the family home at 601 Kilmarnock Road, Merrylee. After attending Hutchesons’ Girls Grammar she went on to study Law in 1947, enrolling in Civil Law and Forensic Medicine in her first year, Scots Law, Public International and Constitutional Law the following year. None of her subjects seemed to cause difficulty and she added Conveyancing in 1950 to graduate B.L. Meanwhile she had served her apprenticeship with a law firm and was ready to be admitted to the profession as a solicitor that same year. The following year she married Harry Sevitt, a medical practitioner. The couple had two children for whom she was left to provide when she was widowed in 1961. She continued in practice. In 1973 she married Alf Collins and sadly faced widowhood again when he died in 1986. Doreen succeeded in maintaining her career. She became a partner in Berkeley & Co. of 175 St. Vincent Street. In addition to work as a solicitor she contributed an entry on the Essential Validity of Wills to the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia. She died in 2007, aged 77.
Sources
University of Glasgow Registry and General Council Records
Scotlands People
CoSS Petitions List CS46/1950/11/72
