• Source: List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States

This list of the first women lawyers and judges in each state of the United States includes the years in which the women were admitted to practice law. Also included are women of other distinctions, such as the first in their states to graduate from law school.




Firsts nationwide






= Law school

=
First female law graduate: Ada Kepley (1881) in 1870
First African American female law graduate: Charlotte E. Ray (1872)
First Native American (Chippewa) female law graduate: Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin in 1914
First Nisei female law graduate: Patsy Mink (1953) in 1951
First deaf African American female law graduate: Claudia L. Gordon (c. 2000)




= Lawyers

=
First female to act as an attorney: Margaret Brent in 1648
First female without a formal legal education admitted to state bar: Arabella Mansfield (1869)
First African American female: Charlotte E. Ray (1872)
First Russian female: Alice Serber (1899)
First Native American (Wyandot) female: Lyda Conley (1902)
First blind female: Christine la Barraque (c. 1906)
First female admitted to argue cases before a U.S. Court of Appeals: Helen R. Carloss (c. 1923)
First Armenian American female: Norma M. Karaian
First Japanese American female: Elizabeth K. Ohi (1937)
First female prosecutor (international military tribunal): Grace Kanode Llewellyn (1931) in 1945
First Chinese American female: Emma Ping Lum (1947)
First Filipino American female: Ruby Carpio Bell (1964)
First openly lesbian: Renee C. Hanover (1969)
First Navajo female: Claudeen Arthur (1970)
First female solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor: Carin Clauss (1963) in 1977
First quadriplegic female: Holly Caudill (1995)
First deaf African American female: Claudia L. Gordon (c. 2000)
First Marshallese female: Arsima A. Muller (2005)
First Qatari female admitted to practice law in the U.S.: Farah Abdulrahman Al-Muftah (2011)
First Air Force JAG Corps female officer permitted to wear hijab: Maysaa Ouza (2018)
First deaf Pakistani-American and Muslim female: Nida Din (2020)



Lawyers and the U.S. Supreme Court

First female to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Belva Ann Lockwood (1873) in 1880
First Native American (Wyandot) female to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Lyda Conley (1902) in 1909
First African American female to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Constance Baker Motley (1946) in 1954
First lesbian to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Pearl M. Hart in 1957
First Asian American female to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Emma Ping Lum (1947) around 1958
First Latino American female to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Vilma Socorro Martínez (1967) in 1977
First Native American (Lumbee) female to win a U.S. Supreme Court case: Arlinda Locklear (1976) in 1983
First Muslim Arab American female to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Fadwa Hammoud in 2021




= Law clerks

=
First female to clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals: Carmel “Kim” Prashker Ebb in 1945
First female to clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: Doris Gray
First African American female to clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims: Janene D. Jackson
See also Lists of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States




= State judges

=
See Women in the United States judiciary




= Federal judges

=
See Women in the United States judiciary




= Attorneys General of the U.S.

=
See United States Attorney General

First female: Janet Reno in 1993




= Deputy Attorney General of the U.S.

=
First female: Carol E. Dinkins (1971) in 1984




= Associate Attorney General of the U.S.

=
First female: Rachel Brand from 2017-2018
First Asian American female: Vanita Gupta in 2021




= Solicitor General of the U.S.

=
First female (acting): Barbara Underwood (1969) in 2001
First female: Elena Kagan (1986) from 2009-2010




= Deputy Solicitor General of the U.S.

=
First (African American) female: Jewel Lafontant (1946) in 1973




= Assistant Attorney General of the U.S.

=
First females: Annette Abbott Adams (1912) and Mabel Walker Willebrandt (1917) from 1920-1921 and 1921-1929 respectively
First Asian American female: Rose Ochi in 1997




= State Attorneys General

=
First female: Anne X. Alpern (1927) in 1959
First female (elected): Arlene Violet (1974) in 1985
First Mexican American female: Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1999
First African American female: Pamela Carter in 1993
First Asian American (female): Kamala Harris (1989) from 2011-2017
First openly lesbian female: Maura Healey (1998) in 2015




= State Solicitor General

=
First Muslim Arab American (female): Fadwa Hammoud in 2019




= United States Attorney

=
First female: Annette Abbott Adams (1912) from 1918-1920
First female to serve a full-term: Virginia Dill McCarty (1977) from 1977-1981
First openly lesbian female: Jenny Durkan (1986) in 2009
First Asian American female: Debra Wong Yang (1986) from 2002-2006
First Native American (Hopi) female Diane Humetewa (1993) in 2007
First Muslim (female): Saima Mohsin in 2021




= Assistant United States Attorney

=
First female: Annette Abbott Adams (1912) from 1914-1918
First African American female: Jewel Lafontant (1946) from 1955-1958
First known quadriplegic female: Holly Caudill in 1995




= Special Assistant U.S. Attorney

=
First female: Mary Grace Quackenbos Humiston (1904) in 1906




= State Assistant Attorney General

=
First female: Ella Knowles Haskell (1888) in 1893
First African American female: Helen Elsie Austin (1930) in 1937




= State District Attorneys

=
First female: Edna C. Plummer (1907) in 1918
First African American female: Anne Elise Thompson in 1975
First openly lesbian female: Bonnie Dumanis (1977) in 2002
First Dominican American (female): Camelia Valdes in 2009
First Korean American (female): Grace H. Park in 2013
First Puerto Rican female: Deborah González in 2020




= State Deputy District Attorney

=
First female: Clara Shortridge Foltz (1878) in 1910




= Federal Bar Associations

=
First (African American) female to co-found a coed national bar association: Gertrude Rush (1918) in 1925
First female president (Federal Bar Association): Marguerite Rawalt in 1943
First Asian American (female) president (Federal Bar Association): Anh Le Kremer
First female president (National Bar Association): Arnette Hubbard in 1981
First Jewish female admitted (American Bar Association): Clarice Baright (1905) in 1919
First African American female president (National Association of Women Lawyers): Mahala Ashley Dickerson in 1983
See also List of presidents of the American Bar Association




= State Bar Association

=
First (African American) female to lead coed state bar: Gertrude Rush (1918) in 1921
First female president of voluntary state bar: Carole Bellows in 1977
First female president of mandatory/integrated state bar: Donna Willard-Jones from 1979-1980
First openly lesbian to serve as president of a statewide bar association: Joan Ellenbogen in 1980
First Latino American female president: Mary Torres in 2002
First Korean American female president: Esther H. Lim in 2018




Firsts in individual states


List of first women lawyers and judges in Alabama
List of first women lawyers and judges in Alaska
List of first women lawyers and judges in Arizona
List of first women lawyers and judges in Arkansas
List of first women lawyers and judges in California
List of first women lawyers and judges in Colorado
List of first women lawyers and judges in Connecticut
List of first women lawyers and judges in Delaware
List of first women lawyers and judges in Florida
List of first women lawyers and judges in Georgia
List of first women lawyers and judges in Hawaii
List of first women lawyers and judges in Idaho
List of first women lawyers and judges in Illinois
List of first women lawyers and judges in Indiana
List of first women lawyers and judges in Iowa
List of first women lawyers and judges in Kansas
List of first women lawyers and judges in Kentucky
List of first women lawyers and judges in Louisiana
List of first women lawyers and judges in Maine
List of first women lawyers and judges in Maryland
List of first women lawyers and judges in Massachusetts
List of first women lawyers and judges in Michigan
List of first women lawyers and judges in Minnesota
List of first women lawyers and judges in Mississippi
List of first women lawyers and judges in Missouri
List of first women lawyers and judges in Montana
List of first women lawyers and judges in Nebraska
List of first women lawyers and judges in Nevada
List of first women lawyers and judges in New Hampshire
List of first women lawyers and judges in New Jersey
List of first women lawyers and judges in New Mexico
List of first women lawyers and judges in New York
List of first women lawyers and judges in North Carolina
List of first women lawyers and judges in North Dakota
List of first women lawyers and judges in Ohio
List of first women lawyers and judges in Oklahoma
List of first women lawyers and judges in Oregon
List of first women lawyers and judges in Pennsylvania
List of first women lawyers and judges in Rhode Island
List of first women lawyers and judges in South Carolina
List of first women lawyers and judges in South Dakota
List of first women lawyers and judges in Tennessee
List of first women lawyers and judges in Texas
List of first women lawyers and judges in Utah
List of first women lawyers and judges in Vermont
List of first women lawyers and judges in Virginia
List of first women lawyers and judges in Washington
List of first women lawyers and judges in West Virginia
List of first women lawyers and judges in Wisconsin
List of first women lawyers and judges in Wyoming




Firsts in Washington, D.C.


List of first women lawyers and judges in Washington D.C.




Firsts in the U.S. territories


List of first women lawyers and judges in U.S. territories




See also


Timeline of women lawyers in the United States
Women in law




Other topics of interest


List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
List of African American jurists
List of Asian American jurists
List of first women lawyers and judges by nationality (international)
List of Hispanic and Latino American jurists
List of Jewish American jurists
List of LGBT jurists in the United States
List of Native American jurists




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Pembingkaian
• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first women lawyers and judges by nationality
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Europe
• Timeline of women lawyers in the United States
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Africa
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Asia
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Arkansas
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Missouri
• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first women lawyers and judges in North America