Alice Walker Ballard, 77, landmark civil rights attorney, cellist, and choral singer, died of cancer, Monday, Sept. 8, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. An employment and civil rights attorney, Ballard was an unyielding advocate for equality and justice.
Ballard was the daughter of famed horticulturist Ernesta Drinker Ballard and attorney Fredric Lyman Ballard Jr. Though her family co-founded the Ballard Spahr Law Firm, Ballard knew while attending Harvard Law School and finding herself deeply influenced by the Civil Rights Movement, she would seek a different path.
Her …
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Alice Walker Ballard, 77, landmark civil rights attorney, cellist, and choral singer, died of cancer, Monday, Sept. 8, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. An employment and civil rights attorney, Ballard was an unyielding advocate for equality and justice.
Ballard was the daughter of famed horticulturist Ernesta Drinker Ballard and attorney Fredric Lyman Ballard Jr. Though her family co-founded the Ballard Spahr Law Firm, Ballard knew while attending Harvard Law School and finding herself deeply influenced by the Civil Rights Movement, she would seek a different path.
Her daughter Sarah recalled, “There’s a funny piece of family lore she told me. The school hosted a career fair before graduation and it didn’t dawn on her that she should go check in and say ‘Hi’ to the Ballard Spahr table.” Instead, she drove to Maine where she worked at a poverty law center before returning to her native Philadelphia.
A 1966 graduate of Springside School, Ballard went on to Harvard University — earning an undergraduate degree in astronomy — and attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1973, one of very few women to do so at the time.
Ballard grew up in Chestnut Hill and played the cello as a child, a skill she would later use when she returned to the area and joined the Chestnut Hill Community Orchestra as its principal cellist, as well the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, and other chamber groups. While still a student, she also sang in Harvard’s Memorial Church Choir, and later with Singing City and Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia.
Daughter Sarah Mitteldorf said of Ballard’s musical endeavors, “She went out of her way to make sure that people felt included. ... She had such joy when she got an indication that someone who may have been on the outskirts felt comfortable in the group.”
Ballard’s care for the outsider carried over into her career. Her ex-husband, Josh Mitteldorf, a fellow Harvard graduate whom she met at her 10-year class reunion and married in 1982, said, “Alice dedicated her life to advocating for workers’ rights.”
Upon her return to Philadelphia, Ballard worked at the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia, opening her own firm in 1978. Ballard was lead or co-counsel on many landmark civil and employment rights cases, including a 1978 racial discrimination lawsuit against U.S. Steel, umpires suing Major League Baseball in 1999, and the notorious 2018 Pennsylvania 7th Congressional District gerrymandering case that reached the Supreme Court. Closer to home, she also represented longtime KYW-TV News anchor Beverly Williams in a race, sex, and age discrimination lawsuit against the station. The suit was settled out of court in 2003.
Ballard also taught at the law schools of both Villanova University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Ballard and Mitteldorf adopted their two children, Sarah and Madeline, from China, and in that effort as well, Ballard fought the prevailing attitudes of the day that viewed adoption as a source of embarrassment. Sarah said, “She didn’t know that adoption was a possibility for her technically, but also emotionally. And later, when she would run into people who were having fertility difficulties, she tried to find a roundabout, nondirect, and very kind way to let the person know there’s more than one pathway to having a family.”
She won awards such as “Best Lawyer” from U.S. News and World Report, “Top Attorney in Pennsylvania” from Philadelphia magazine and “Best Labor and Employment Lawyers in America,” from Martindale-Hubbell, which evaluates attorneys nationwide. In 2020, she was given the National Employment Lawyers Association’s Distinguished Service Award.
In addition to her music and dedication to her clients, Ballard maintained a blog (workandworkingblog.wordpress.com) where she posted poems, meaningful literary quotes, works of art, and songs about work and working. Sarah said, “At home, Alice reveled in the glory of gardening, and like her parents before her, the joy of always having a dog by her side.”
Ballard is survived by two sisters, Ernesta Ballard and Sophie Bilezikian, and two daughters, Madeline Ballard and Sarah Mitteldorf. Her brother, Frederic L. Ballard Jr., predeceased her. A celebration of her life will be held at a later date.
Donations in memory of Alice Walker Ballard may be made to the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, c/o Peter Heinemann, Treasurer, 205 Greenwood Ave., Wyncote, Pa. 19095; and the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, 2000 Hamilton St., Suite 201, Philadelphia, PA 19130.
Wendy Rosenfield can be reached at Wendy@chestnuthilllocal.com.
