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Gloria Rachel Allred (née Bloom; born July 3, 1941) is an American attorney known for taking high-profile and often controversial cases, particularly those involving the protection of women's rights. She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Early life and education Gloria Rachel Bloom was born in Philadelphia into a Jewish working-class family on July 3, 1941. Her father, Morris, worked as a salesman; her British-born mother, Stella, was a householder. After graduating from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, she attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she met her first husband, Peyton Huddleston Bray Jr. The couple had their only child, Lisa Bloom, on September 20, 1961, and divorced shortly after. Bloom is also an attorney and is best known as a former Court TV anchor. Gloria Bloom moved back in with her parents and continued her education. In 1963, she earned a bachelor's degree in English, graduating with honors. Over strong objections from her professor, she wrote her honors thesis on black writers. She was employed in a number of occupations before she decided to become a teacher, taking a position at Benjamin Franklin High School. She began work on a graduate degree at New York University, where she became interested in the civil rights movement. After earning a master's degree, she became a teacher and, in 1966, moved to Los Angeles, where she resided in Watts. She worked for the Los Angeles Teachers Association and taught at Jordan High School and Fremont High School. In her autobiography she describes how, during a vacation in Acapulco in 1966, she was raped at gunpoint. She discovered she was pregnant and sought an abortion. Abortion was illegal at the time, so Allred had a back-alley abortion. After undergoing the procedure, she began hemorrhaging and became infected, only recovering after being hospitalized. She did not report the rape, she said, because she did not think anyone would believe her. In 1968, she married William Allred. She enrolled in Southwestern University School of Law and later transferred to Loyola University School of Law at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Allred graduated and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1975. Allred divorced her husband in 1987, retaining her married name. Career Legal In a legal career that has spanned five decades, Allred has represented a wide variety of clients in civil rights suits that have involved sexual harassment, women's rights, wrongful termination, and employment discrimination. The New Republic has called her "a longtime master of the press conference". She often takes high-profile cases, using press conferences and appearances on television to much effect. Allred has represented many clients in suits against celebrities, including those against Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Herman Cain, David Boreanaz, Scott Lee Cohen, Anthony Weiner, Sacha Baron Cohen, Esai Morales, and R. Kelly. 1970s and 1980s Allred founded the firm Allred, Maroko, & Goldberg with fellow Loyola graduates Michael Maroko and Nathan Goldberg in January 1976. In 1979, Allred represented seven children and their parents in a lawsuit against the Sav-On Drugstore chain to stop the store from designating separate sections for boys' and girls' toys. In 1981, while California State Senator John G. Schmitz was presiding over hearings on outlawing abortion, Allred presented him with a chastity belt. Schmitz retaliated in a press release, calling her a "slick butch lawyeress". She sued him for libel, and eventually secured a settlement of $20,000 and an apology. In 1985, Allred, along with Catharine MacKinnon, drafted a version of the Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance for Los Angeles County. The legislation failed to pass the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In 1987, Allred took on the then all-male Friars Club of Beverly Hills, an exclusive private club, over its membership discrimination policies. The Friars Club eventually allowed Allred and five other women to use the club's health facilities, after Allred displayed early skills in effective use of the media. 1990s Allred wrote a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee in 1992 asking them to investigate the actions of Oregon Senator Bob Packwood, who had been the subject of a newspaper article that detailed his history of sexual harassment. She kept pressure on the Committee and urged Packwood to release his diaries. The Committee eventually voted for his expulsion, and he resigned. In 1983, Allred represented lesbian activists Deborah Johnson and Zandra Rolón in their lawsuit against the owner of a Los Angeles restaurant, Papa Choux, after he denied them service in a booth reserved for "romantic couples". While the lower court denied the two an injunction based on unlawful discrimination, the appellate court reversed the decision in Rolon v. Kulwitzky (1984), finding that the restaurant's behavior was discrimination prohibited under the Los Angeles Municipal Code. Rather than serve LGBT couples, the restaurant decided to eliminate the booths altogether, and took out newspaper ads inviting the public to a "Wake for Romance" event. In 1995, Allred represented 11-year-old Katrina Yeaw in Yeaw v. Boy Scouts of America, a suit against the Boy Scouts of America to determine whether the organization had the right to exclude girls from membership. That same year, she represented Nicole Brown Simpson's family during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. In August 1997, she represented model Kelly Fisher when she sued Dodi Fayed for allegedly breaking off their engagement to begin his highly publicized relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales. The suit was dropped not long after Diana and Fayed died in Paris that August. Allred represented Melrose Place actress Hunter Tylo in 1997 when producer Aaron Spelling fired her because she was pregnant. A jury awarded Tylo $4.8 million. The case was important in establishing the rights of actors to continue work if they become pregnant. 2000s After pop singer Michael Jackson held his son over a hotel balcony in Berlin in 2002, Allred wrote a letter to California's Child Protective Services, asking for an investigation into the safety of Jackson's children, and spoke on CNN about the subject. She also briefly represented Jordan Chandler in 1993 whose father had accused Jackson of sexual abuse. Allred also represented 18-year-old Daniel Kapon, who claimed that Jackson had molested him when he was a child. The Kapon case was dismissed because Kapon's father confirmed that Kapon had never met Jackson. Jackson, who an advisor said could be a bit paranoid, reportedly kept an "enemy list" on which Allred appeared, along with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, illusionist Uri Geller, music executive Tommy Mottola, DA Tom Sneddon, and Janet Arvizo, mother of a Jackson accuser. The source of this allegation was Dieter Wiesner whom Jackson fired and who at that time w.... Discover the Edith Wharton Jia Tolentino popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Edith Wharton Jia Tolentino books.