In 2018, four weeks after returning from maternity leave, Jennifer Feld had a five-day jury trial in Palm Beach County in Florida.

At the time, Feld was pumping breast milk every few hours to feed her son, who was born premature and could not digest formula. To do this during the trial, she had to file a motion for accommodations that allowed her to leave the courtroom and request a jury instruction that noted it was normal for attorneys to come and go during proceedings.

Feld also needed to figure out where to pump. While the courthouse had a lactation room, she says it wasn’t close enough to where her case was being tried to make it a feasible option.  

“This courthouse is huge, and, of course, my trial was in Timbuktu in comparison to where the lactation space was,” says Feld, who now owns Feld Legal in Tampa. “I could use it in the morning when I got there, but then I had to be in and out of trial. So I pumped in a criminal court holding cell.”

Feld wrote about the experience in an article that caught the attention of lawyers nationwide, including those involved in the Florida Association for Women Lawyers’ Lactation Space Task Force. The group was working to open lactation spaces in courthouses across the state and asked Feld to join their efforts. What started as a grassroots initiative, she says, eventually evolved into a campaign to pass new legislation.

In 2023, Florida became one of only a handful of states that mandate or fund lactation spaces in their courthouses. Its law requires all county courthouses to provide a dedicated lactation space that is outside of a restroom, shielded from public view and equipped with an electrical outlet.

The ABA has supported this movement. At its midyear meeting in January 2019, the association adopted a policy that encourages all legislatures, court systems and bar associations to assist with establishing and maintaining lactation areas in courthouses.

Six months later, the Fairness for Breastfeeding Mothers Act of 2019—which required most public federal buildings, including courthouses, to provide private, hygienic lactation rooms outside of restrooms for their employees and visitors—was signed into law. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois who co-sponsored the bill, credited the ABA for its leadership on the issue.

Feld and her colleagues in Florida used the ABA policy and federal law in their pitch for new legislation, which she says ultimately helped ensure its success.

“A courthouse is not just for jurors and employees and attorneys,” Feld says. “It is a place for the people to come, whether they’re there to pay a parking ticket or get a marriage license, or maybe they’re just driving through and need a lactation space.  

“Having the courthouse be a safe place for mothers to pump or feed their children, I think is really moving.” 

Illinois has been a leader in providing lactation accommodations, passing a law in 2018 that required courthouses to make available a private space outside of a restroom for all members of the public to express breast milk.

The ACLU of Illinois advocated for the law after hearing from a lactating mother who reported for jury duty in Chicago, says Emily Werth, a senior supervising attorney. When the mother asked where she could pump, she was told the lactation room was locked, but the men’s restroom—which had an electrical outlet—was available.

“She had to ask to be excused from jury duty,” Werth says. “She was not willing to pump in any restroom, much less a men’s restroom.”

In 2019, the ACLU contacted courthouses in Illinois’ 49 largest counties to assess whether they complied with the new law. According to its report, personnel in more than 40% of surveyed court facilities said there was no designated lactation space or the space did not meet the law’s requirements.  

The ACLU later heard from several counties that claimed its information was wrong, and they did have proper lactation spaces, Werth says.

“Our response to them was, ‘That’s great, but it is very important that when people come to your courthouse, the staff they interact with actually know about the lactation space,’” Werth says. “You could have a beautiful lactation space, but if staff are telling people to pump in the restroom, it doesn’t matter.”

Nevada, Washington and California also passed legislation that focuses on lactation spaces in courthouses in recent years.  

California’s new laws, which go into effect in July, not only require designated lactation rooms in most superior courthouses, but reasonable breaks for lawyers and other court users who need to pump during proceedings.  

“That’s so powerful,” says Jessica Lee, the co-director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco. “There are a lot of judges out there who get it, and when an attorney asks for that break, they are quick to provide it. But that’s not every judge, and I have to say, so many attorneys we hear from are nervous to even ask.”

Lee, whose work includes helping to implement policies and legislation related to lactation and the workplace, notes the passage of the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act in 2022 was “a big shock to the system that sped all of this up.” The federal law requires employers to provide breastfeeding employees with a private lactation space and reasonable break times.

Lawyers in Michigan and New Hampshire are among others who have taken steps to support nursing practitioners.

The Women Lawyers Association of Michigan helped open model lactation spaces in the Third Circuit Court in Detroit in 2018. The association also partnered with state judicial and government leaders to create a policy for courts to use when creating their own lactation rooms. 

The New Hampshire Bar Association’s Gender Equality Committee has worked on the issue for more than two years, says Melissa Fales, an assistant attorney general in the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau and one of its members. Among its recommendations is a court form that could be filed under seal in cases, so lawyers could discreetly request breaks and lactation space in the state’s courthouses.

The New Hampshire Judicial Branch is considering other options, including a new system that directs lawyers to send their requests to its general counsel’s office, which would then connect them to clerks who can help meet their needs. According to Judge Christopher Keating, its state court administrator, the judicial branch also plans to provide more training for judges and staff.

“A streamlined and discreet process to request accommodations and access to a clean, private and secure location for pumping will ensure that New Hampshire lawyers face fewer obstacles when returning to work as nursing parents,” says Fales, who adds the committee referenced the ABA’s policy as part of its work.