She started her career in Syracuse as a public defender. There she represented the
rights of minors to have legal representation when appearing in court. In 1963, she was invited by attorney
William Kunstler to become one of a group of volunteer lawyers defending civil rights workers on the voter registration drive in the southern United States. She spent two summers in Mississippi and Louisiana, following which she became an attorney for the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She also defended Bruce Dancis, a draft-card burner at Cornell University, during the time of the Vietnam War. The suit, ''Seidenberg v. McSorleys' Old Ale House'' (1970, United States District Court, S. D. New York) established that, as a public place, the ale house could not violate the
Equal Protection Clause of the
United States Constitution. Her papers covering the time that she served as vice president of the National Organization for Women, are held at the
Harvard Library. ==Private life==