Shirley A. Siegel, who as a top law school graduate overcame rejections by 40 male-dominated law firms before forging a career as a leading civil rights lawyer, arguing cases before the Supreme Court and becoming New York State’s first female solicitor general, died June 29 at her home in Manhattan. She was 101.

Ms. Siegel was no stranger to discrimination herself — as a woman and as a Jewish woman. She had entered Yale Law School in 1939 as the only woman in her class. “I came to my first class, and nobody would sit next to me,” she said. Graduating fourth in her class, her application for employment was rejected by 40 firms. She was finally hired by Proskauer, Rose & Paskus, a largely Jewish firm, becoming its first female lawyer.

In her New York City Bar Association biography, Ms. Seigel explained how she had achieved her childhood goal of becoming a lawyer. “You get to realize in so many different settings the importance of understanding the facts, getting skeptical if what you’re being told doesn’t hang together,” she said. “It just applies to everything. And, of course, hard work. Everything is hard work.”