Amelia D. Lewis

Brooklyn Law,
class of 1925

State Bar of Arizona
member since 1930

Featured Cases:
In re Gault 387 U.S. 1 (1967) 

(b. 1903, d. 1994) Amelia Dietrich Lewis was born in New York City, June 25, 1903. She attended Hunter College and then graduated from St. Lawrence University School of Law (now Brooklyn Law School) with an LL.B., in 1925. She later received an LL.M. from New York Law School. She was legislative assistant to the minority leader of the New York City Council and was an attorney for the Legal Aid Society. During World War II, Lewis served with the Office of Price Administration. In 1957, after the death of her husband, Maxwell Lewis, she moved to Arizona. Upon being admitted to the Arizona Bar in 1958, Lewis accepted the post of Deputy County Attorney for Navajo County. In 1970 she moved and set up practice in Youngtown, later moving her offices to Peoria.

In 1964 Lewis undertook the representation of Gerald Gault, a minor, in an appeal of his case. She appealed, first to the Arizona Supreme Court, then to the United States Supreme Court, where Gault’s conviction was overturned.

Lewis is a member of the New York Bar, the Arizona Bar, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the American Bar Association and the Maricopa County Bar Association. In 1988 Lewis was the first recipient of the Amicus Award of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. She has served on the Arizona Governor;s Advisory Council of Aging and is a volunteer for the American Heart Association in Sun City. She has also served the Arizona Democratic Party in a variety of capacities, including as a member of the State Executive Committee and as party parliamentarian.