 Born in Norfolk, Virginia, the daughter of a newspaper distributor and a business manager for a labor union, Vladeck graduated from Hunter College in 1945 and received a law degree from Columbia University in 1947.After having three children, in 1957 she joined the New York City law firm of Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, which her husband Stephen (the son of politician Baruch Charney Vladeck) had helped found in 1948.She described the firm as "the last socialist law firm in America."