Toni Massaro: Editor in Chief, William & Mary Law Review

"But the Editor-in-Chief [of Law Review] made a mistake. He saw me in the hallway one day and he said, I assume you’re going to run for Student Articles Editor. And something snapped in my head. I said, No, sir, I’m going to run for Editor-in-Chief. And he just stared at me. And then I said, And that’s all I’m going to run for. I walked away shaking. Why did I say that?... But it just seemed wrong to me that he was assuming I would go for that job... I lucked out. I got the Editor-in-Chief job.” -- Toni Massaro, Class of 1980, on becoming Editor-in-Chief of William & Mary Law Review William & Mary Law Review masthead. Vol. 21, no. 1. Fall 1979. In 1979, Toni Massaro became the Editor-in-Chief of William & Mary Law Review’s 21st volume. Massaro was the second woman to hold this position, after John Lee Darst, who headed the very first volume of the Law Review in 1957. Contemporary reporting in the Law School’s student newspaper referred to Massaro as the first woman to hold this position. At the time, most women on the journal’s Executive Board became Student Articles Editors and were presumed not to be candidates for the top Board position. Now in its 66th volume (2024-2025), the Law Review has had at least 21 female editors-in-chief since Massaro was appointed in 1979. Listen to Toni Massaro's oral history online.