List of first women lawyers and judges in Illinois

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Illinois. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to obtain a law degree or become a political figure.

Firsts in state history[]

Ida Platt: First African-American female lawyer in Illinois (1894)
Catherine Waugh McCulloch: First female Justice of the Peace in Illinois (1907)
Mary Bartelme: First female judge in Illinois (1923)

Lawyers[]

  • Myra Bradwell (1890 (1869*)):[1] She aimed to be the first woman admitted to the Illinois State Bar. Denied admission in 1870 because she was a woman, she was admitted nunc pro tunc in 1890, backdated to her 1869 application, in honor of her efforts.[2]
  • Alta M. Hulett (1873):[3] First female lawyer in Illinois admitted to the bar. (After the Bradwell case, the state legislature changed the law to allow women to become lawyers)
  • Ellen A. Martin (1875):[4] First female (a lawyer) to successfully vote in Illinois after finding a loophole in the Lombard town charter in 1891, which was upheld in court.
  • Mary A. Ahrens (1889):[5] Sole female in the inaugural group of 33 lawyers sworn to the bar of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1891.
  • Ida Platt (1894):[6] First African-American female lawyer in Illinois
  • Helen M. Cirese (1921):[7] First Italian American female admitted to the Illinois State Bar
  • Elizabeth K. Ohi (1937):[8] First Japanese American female lawyer in Illinois

Judicial Officers[]

State[]

Justice of the Peace[]
  • Catherine Waugh McCulloch (1886):[9][10][11] First female elected as the Justice of the Peace in Illinois (1907)
Judges[]
  • Mary Bartelme:[12][13] First elected female judge in Illinois (1923); appointed assistant judge (1913).
  • Edith S. Sampson (1927):[14] First African American female judge in Illinois (1962)
  • Consuelo Bedoya-Witt (1977):[15] First Hispanic American female judge in Illinois (1988)
  • Lynne Kawamoto (1981):[16][17][18] First Asian American female (who is Japanese American) judge in Illinois (1991)
  • Rena M. Van Tine (1986):[19] First Indian American female judge in Illinois (2001)
  • Pamela Leeming:[20][21] First known Pakistani American (female) judge in the U.S. (2009)
  • Laura Liu (1991):[22][23] First Asian American female judge in Illinois (2010)
District Court[]
  • Vershenia Ballance Moody (1995):[24] First female (and African American female) appointed as a Judge of the 6B Judicial District in Illinois (2013)
Circuit Court[]
  • Rosemary Collins:[25] First female appointed as a Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit (1989)
  • Rita B. Garman (1968):[26] First female to serve as the Presiding Judge for the Fifth Circuit (1987)
  • Jane D. Waller (1973):[15][27][28] First female appointed as a Judge of the Nineteenth Circuit in Illinois (1981)
Appellate Court[]
  • Rita B. Garman (1968):[26] First female to serve as a Judge of the Fourth District Appellate Court (1995) in Illinois
  • Lisa Holder White (1993):[29] First African American female appointed as a Judge of the Fourth District Appellate Court in Illinois (2013)
Supreme Court[]

Federal[]

District Court[]
Appellate Court[]
  • Ann Claire Williams (1975):[31] First African American female appointed as a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1999)

Attorney General[]

Deputy Attorney General[]

Assistant Attorney General[]

  • Jean Williams (1949):[40][41] First African American female to serve as the Assistant Attorney General of Illinois

Solicitor General[]

United States Attorney[]

Public Defender[]

  • Pearl M. Hart (1914):[43][44][45] First female (and LGBT) to serve as a public defender for the Moral Court of Chicago, Illinois (1933)

Bar Association[]

  • Carole Bellows:[46] First female to serve as the President of the Illinois State Bar Association (1977)

Firsts in local history[]

Alphabetized by county name

Region[]

Adams County[]

Bureau County[]

  • Charlotte Safranske Martin (1976):[51] First woman to be elected State's Attorney of Bureau County, Illinois. She won the vote 9,883 to 8,171. She was also the first Democrat to be elected to that post in 44 years.

Christian County[]

Clark County[]

Coles County[]

Cook County[]

  • Emma Baumann:[54] First female to graduate from the Chicago College of Law (1890) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Catherine Waugh McCulloch (1886):[9][10][11] First female Justice of the Peace in Cook County, Illinois (1907-1911)
  • Nellie Carlin (1896):[55][56][57][11][58] First female to serve as the Public Guardian (1911) and Assistant State's Attorney in Cook County, Illinois (1918)
  • Mary Bartelme:[12][13] First female judge in Chicago, Illinois (1923) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Lynne Kawamoto (1981):[16][17][18] First Asian American female (who is Japanese American) to serve as an Associate Judge for Cook County, Illinois (1991)
  • Sophia Hall (1967):[59] First female to serve as a Presiding Judge in Cook County, Illinois (1991)
  • Pamela Leeming:[20][60] First Pakistani American female to serve as an Associate Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County (2009)
  • Jessica Arong O’Brien:[61] First Filipino American female (and Filipino American in general) judge in Cook County, Illinois
  • Anita Alvarez:[62] First Hispanic American female elected as the State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois (2008)
  • Kim Foxx:[63] First African American female elected as the State’s Attorney for Cook County, Illinois (2016)
  • Lori Lightfoot (1989):[64] First African American and openly LGBT female (a former prosecutor) to serve as Mayor of Chicago (2019) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Esther Rothstein:[65] First female to serve as President of the Chicago Bar Association (1977) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Aurora Austriaco (1990):[66] First Filipino American female to serve as the President of the Chicago Bar Association (2012-2013) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]

Cumberland County[]

DuPage County[]

Edgar County[]

Kane County[]

  • Marie Hunter Willis:[69] First female lawyer in Kane County, Illinois
  • Pamela Jansen:[70][71] First female judge in Kane County, Illinois (1987)
  • Sandra T. Parga:[71] First Hispanic female judge in Kane County, Illinois (2017)

Kankakee County[]

  • J. Imani Drew (c. 1980s):[72] First African-American female judge in Kankakee County, Illinois (2016). She was also the first African-American prosecutor (1983) in the county's history.

Kendall County[]

Lake County[]

  • Jane D. Waller (1973):[15][27][28] First female judge in Lake County, Illinois
  • Barbara Gilleran-Johnson:[15] First female appointed as a Judge of the Lake County Juvenile Court [Lake County, Illinois]

LaSalle County[]

Lee County[]

Macon County[]

Madison County[]

McLean County[]

Menard County[]

  • M. Carol Pope:[80] First female to serve as the State's Attorney for Menard County, Illinois, as well as the first judge from the 8th Judicial Circuit and the county to be assigned to the Fourth District Appellate Court

St. Clair County[]

  • Alexis Otis-Lewis:[81] First African American female judge in St. Clair County, Illinois (1991)
  • Laura Beasley:[82] First female to serve as the President of the East St. Louis Bar Association

Sangamon County[]

Stark County[]

Vermillion County[]

Will County[]

  • Susan Pierson De Witt:[86] First female to practice law in Will County, Illinois
  • Carmen Julia Lynn Goodman:[87] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Circuit Court in Will County, Illinois (2007)

Williamson County[]

Woodford County[]

See also[]

Other topics of interest[]

References[]

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