NEW YORK (Reuters) - A pioneering civil rights lawyer on Sunday urged a hotel ballroom filled with powerful women attorneys, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, to help end violence committed by little girls.

``The number of little girl offenders goes up every year ... that is now our target. How do we save our little girls. They are mean and they kill,'' said Dovey Roundtree, who has been general counsel of the National Council of Negro Women for the past 30 years.

Roundtree, who has been an advocate for African Americans and women for almost 50 years, made her remarks at a ceremony at which she, O'Connor and three others were honored by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession.

They were recognized at the ABA's annual meeting in New York for achieving professional excellence and having paved the way for success of other women lawyers.

Other award winners were Judith Kaye, chief judge of New York state's highest court; Sheila Birnbaum, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where she built the prominent New York-based firm's product liability practice, and Shirley Hufstedler, who had been one of the first women ever appointed to the federal bench and who was secretary of education under President Jimmy Carter. Hufstedler is now with the Los Angeles firm of Morrison & Foerster.

In accepting the ABA award, Roundtree spoke of how she had been inspired in seventh grade by a female mentor who told her ''you have to be about something.''

Roundtree was one of a select group of African American women selected to integrate the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAC) in 1942. She was later admitted to Howard Law School in 1947 at a time when few blacks were able to go into law.

In 1952, Roundtree represented a young black WAC who was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white male marine in North Carolina. Her work on the case led to a landmark 1955 civil rights ruling that helped integrate interstate travel.

Roundtree told women lawyers that they in particular have a new challenge of helping little girls escape a life of violence. ``It's women who nurture,'' she said.

Roundtree cited a 1999 Department of Justice study of youthful offenders. The report found that arrest rates since 1981 for girls has been growing faster than for boys.

The arrest rate for girls charged with weapons violations nearly tripled between 1981 and 1997 while the arrest rate for boys nearly doubled, the report said adding that while male youth arrest rates for aggravated assault leveled off between 1992 and 1995, arrest rates for girls continue to rise.

``I'm 86 ... and I will work with you. Let us join our sisters in other states and other places. Let's make a difference. Call on me, not collect, but call on me,'' Roundtree said.

``We're certainly going to call you Ms. Roundtree. Not collect,'' responded O'Connor. ``We're all going to leave here and we're going to try to be about something ... and to remember that it's great to be the first and it's important but it's even more important not to be the last.''