List of first women lawyers and judges in Tennessee

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This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Tennessee. 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[]

Lutie Lytle: First African American female lawyer in Tennessee (1897)
Bernice B. Donald: First African American female judge in Tennessee (1982)

Lawyers[]

  • Lutie Lytle (1897):[1] First African American female admitted to practice law in Tennessee. She worked thereafter as an educator and librarian at Tennessee College.
  • Marion Scudder Griffin (1907):[2] First female lawyer to practice law in Tennessee
  • Frances Wolf (1907):[3] First female lawyer to argue before the Tennessee Court of Civil Appeals

Judicial Officers[]

State Courts[]

Judges[]
Criminal Court[]
  • Carolyn Wade Brackett:[12] First African American female to serve as a criminal court judge in Tennessee (1994)
  • Lisa Niddifer Rice (1987):[13] First female Criminal Court Judge of the First Judicial District in Tennessee Carter County, Tennessee
Circuit Court[]
  • Rita L. Stotts:[12] First African American female to become a Circuit Court judge in Tennessee (2000)
  • Bernice B. Donald (1979):[10][11][14] First African American (female) to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Tennessee (2011)
Appellate Court[]
Supreme Court[]

Federal Courts[]

U.S. District Court[]
  • Bernice B. Donald (1979):[10][11] First African American female to become a District Court judge in Tennessee (1995)
  • Pamela L. Reeves (1979):[15][16] First female appointed as presiding judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (2014)
U.S. Bankruptcy Court[]
  • Bernice B. Donald (1979):[10][11] First African American female appointed by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to serve as a bankruptcy judge (1988)
U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals[]
  • Bernice B. Donald (1979):[10][11][14] First African American (female) to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Tennessee (2011)

Deputy Attorney General[]

  • Patricia J. Cottrell (1976):[17] First female Deputy Attorney General of Tennessee

Assistant Attorney General[]

  • Etrula T. Trotter:[18] First female (and African American) to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for Tennessee (1974)

United States Attorney[]

Assistant United States Attorney[]

Solicitor General[]

  • Andrée Blumstein (1981):[20][21] First female Solicitor General of Tennessee (2014)

Bar Association[]

  • Billie Bethel: First female to serve as director of the Tennessee Bar Association (title at the time believed to be secretary) Read her obituary
  • Pamela L. Reeves (1979):[15][16] First female to serve as the President of the Tennessee Bar Association (1997-1998)
  • Joycelyn Stevenson:[22] First African American female (and African American in general) to serve as the executive director of the Tennessee Bar Association

Firsts in local history[]

Alphabetized by county name

Blount County[]

Davidson County[]

  • Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968):[7] First female lawyer in Nashville's U.S. Attorney's Office. She is also the first tenure-track female professor at Vanderbilt Law School. [Davidson County, Tennessee]
  • Angelita Dalton:[24] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Davidson County Criminal Court (2017)

DeKalb County[]

Hamblen County[]

Hamilton County[]

Hardeman County[]

Knox County[]

Madison County[]

Maury County[]

  • Dabney Anderson:[34] First female magistrate of the Maury County Quarterly Court (1974)

Rutherford County[]

Shelby County[]

  • Camille Kelley:[4][5][6] First female to serve as a Judge of the Juvenile Court of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee (1920)
  • Alma Hogshead Law:[37] First female magistrate in Shelby County, Tennessee (1929)
  • Nell Sanders Aspero (1933):[38] First female lawyer in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee
  • Ann Pugh (1976):[39] First female judge in Shelby County, Tennessee
  • Nancy B. Sorak:[40] First female elected as a judge in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. She was also the first female Public Defender for the City Court.
  • Earnestine Dorse:[12] First African American female to serve as a judge in Memphis, Tennessee (1990) [Shelby County, Tennessee]
  • Carolyn Wade Brackett:[12] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Criminal Court in Shelby County, Tennessee (1994)
  • Karen D. Webster:[12] First African American (female) elected as a Judge of the Shelby County Probate Court (2006)
  • Amy Weirich:[41] First female to serve as the District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee (2011)
  • Phyllis Aluko:[42] First female (and African American female) Chief Public Defender of Shelby County, Tennessee (2019)
  • Lee Ann Pafford Dobson:[43] First female judge in Collierville, Tennessee (2019) [Shelby County, Tennessee]

Van Buren County[]

  • Susan Marttala:[44] First female to serve as District Attorney in the State of Tennessee as well as for the Thirty-First Judicial District in Tennessee (1986) [Van Buren and Warren Counties, Tennessee]

Warren County[]

  • Susan Marttala:[44] First female to serve as District Attorney in the State of Tennessee as well as for the Thirty-First Judicial District in Tennessee (1986) Van Buren and Warren Counties, Tennessee

Williamson County[]

See also[]

Other topics of interest[]

References[]

  1. ^ Smith, John Clay (2000-01-01). Rebels in Law: Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472086464.
  2. ^ "Marion Scudder Griffin Collection". memphislibrary.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  3. ^ "Frances Wolf | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  4. ^ a b "CAMILLE KELLEY, A'MEMPHIS JUDGE; First :Woman Appointed to Municipal Juvenile-Court in the South Is Dead". The New York Times. 1955-01-29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  5. ^ a b Hough, Mazie (2015-10-06). Rural Unwed Mothers: An American Experience, 1870-1950. Routledge. ISBN 9781317316459.
  6. ^ a b "First Woman Judge in the South". The Pioche Record. 1920-05-28. ISSN 2472-176X. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  7. ^ a b c d e Robertson, Suzanne Craig (August 2003). "Judge Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey to Receive Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award: This 'Uppity Woman' has Made a Difference in Tennessee Justice". Tenn. B.J. 39: 16.
  8. ^ a b c d "Tennessee judge's epic firsts are historic, unparalleled". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  9. ^ a b "Vanderbilt University Special Collections". library.vanderbilt.edu. 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  10. ^ a b c d e Wilson, J. C. (August 2005). Giant Word Search Puzzle Book of Notable Black Firsts and Facts. iUniverse. ISBN 9780595347285.
  11. ^ a b c d e "President Obama Nominates Judge Bernice Bouie Donald for United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit". whitehouse.gov. 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g "Milestones « Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association". benfjones.com. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  13. ^ Staff, News (2014-09-03). "First female judge in the 1st judicial district takes the bench". WCYB. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  14. ^ a b "Federal judge Bernice Bouie Donald to receive ABA Margaret Brent Award". americanbar.org. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  15. ^ a b "Obama nominates new U.S. judge for East Tennessee". timesfreepress.com. May 2013.
  16. ^ a b "Knoxville lawyer Pamela Reeves nominated for federal judgeship". knoxnews.com. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  17. ^ "Ms. Patricia J. Cottrell Lawyer Profile on Martindale.com". martindale.com. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  18. ^ Clark Grad is State's 1st Female Asst. Atty. Gen. Jet. 1974-11-07.
  19. ^ "Recognizing the WDTN's First Female AUSA, Devon L. Gosnell, during Women's History Month". justice.gov. 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  20. ^ "Andrée Blumstein: Law wasn't first choice for top TN lawyer". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  21. ^ "Andree Blumstein '81 appointed Tennessee solicitor general". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  22. ^ "Three VLS alumni are 2017-18 presidents of the Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee Bar Associations". Vanderbilt Law School. August 16, 2017.
  23. ^ Butler, Iva (June 3, 2011). "Gov. Haslam swears in Tammy Harrington as first female judge in Blount County". The Daily Times.
  24. ^ "Angelita Dalton is first black woman on Davidson County Criminal Court". WKRN. 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  25. ^ "Dekalb County | Counties | Counties | History | TN History for Kids". tnhistoryforkids.org. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  26. ^ "County Spotlight: DeKalb County" (PDF). County Officials E-News. November 2016.
  27. ^ "In Memoriam, Joyce Ward". Citizen Tribune. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  28. ^ "A NEWS MEMO FOR MEMBERS of the U.S. DISTRICT COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY" (PDF). Eastern District of Tennessee. March 2015.
  29. ^ "Judge Paty". chattanooga.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
  30. ^ Hardeman County, Tennessee: Family History. Turner Publishing Company. 2001. ISBN 9781563117572.
  31. ^ "Georgiana Vines: Setting the record straight on Lalla Arnstein". knoxnews.com. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  32. ^ "Knox County Tennessee District Attorney General". knoxcounty.org. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  33. ^ "Suffragist Sue Shelton White honored in Jackson". The Jackson Sun. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  34. ^ "Dabney Anderson -- First Woman Magistrate". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  35. ^ "Class Notes". University of Virginia School of Law. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
  36. ^ Knight, Meribah; Armstrong, Ken (October 8, 2021). "Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn't Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge". ProPublica. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  37. ^ Dowdy, G. Wayne (2014-03-18). On This Day in Memphis History. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625845917.
  38. ^ "Women at Rhodes: 75 Years & Counting" (PDF). Fall 1996.
  39. ^ Staff, WMCActionNews5.com. "First female judge in Shelby Co. dies at 70". Retrieved 2018-01-03.
  40. ^ "Nancy B. Sorak – Women of Achievement". Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  41. ^ Jones, Lindsay (2011-10-01). "The General". Memphis magazine. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  42. ^ "Phyllis Aluko – Law Offices of the Shelby Co. Public Defender". Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  43. ^ "Lee Ann Pafford Dobson is sworn in as Collierville's first female judge". colliervilleherald.net. January 17, 2019. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
  44. ^ a b "Susan Marttala Appointed First Female District Attorney in the State of Tennessee". search.proquest.com. 1990-02-07. ProQuest 1909314400. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  45. ^ Blanton, Shari Lacy • Photos by Brandy. "Juvenile Court Judge Sharon Guffee". Southern Exposure Magazine. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
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