Netflix's new period drama, The Law According to Lidia Poët, follows Lidia Poët (Matilda De Angelis), the first woman attorney in Italy. Did Lidia Poët really exist? Is the Italian show a true story? The answers: Yes and kinda! Poët was born in 1855 in Traverse, Italy, the youngest of four brothers and three sisters.

She attended the University of Turin, where she received her law degree in June 1881, writing a thesis on women's status in society and women's right to vote. Two years later, she was admitted to the Order of Lawyers and Prosecutors of Turin. However, she only practiced law for three months before she was disbarred. In 1920, when she was 65, Poët was finally admitted to the bar thanks to a 1919 law that allowed women to practice as lawyers.