As a young woman, she studied labor relations and advocated for workers’ rights, while also working at Elizabeth Peabody Settlement house and a textile mill. She attended Horace Mann High School, Bryn Mawr College, Radcliffe College, and Barnard College.Ellen Herman, "Justine Wise Polier (1903-1987)", Adoption History Project, Department of History, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon website In 1925, she enrolled in Yale Law School, where she eventually became editor of the Yale Law Journal. She commuted to support the 1926 Passaic Strike.
