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List of first women lawyers and judges in Illinois

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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 graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in state history

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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)

Law School

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  • Ada Kepley (1881):[1] First female law graduate in Illinois (1870)

Lawyers

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  • Myra Bradwell (1890 (1869*)):[2] 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.[3]
  • Alta M. Hulett (1873):[4] 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):[5] 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):[6] 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):[7] First African-American female lawyer in Illinois
  • Helen M. Cirese (1921):[8] First Italian American female admitted to the Illinois State Bar
  • Elizabeth K. Ohi (1937):[9] First Japanese American female lawyer in Illinois
  • Renee C. Hanover (1969):[10] First openly lesbian lawyer in Illinois
  • Lola Miranda Hale (1969), Virginia Martinez (1975) and Viola Armijo Rouse (1975):[11][12][13] First Latino American female lawyers in Illinois

State judges

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  • Catherine Waugh McCulloch (1886):[14][15][16] First female elected as the Justice of the Peace in Illinois (1907)
  • Mary Bartelme:[17][18] First elected female judge (1923) and appointed assistant judge (1913) in Illinois
  • Edith S. Sampson (1927):[19] First African American female judge in Illinois (1962)
  • Jane D. Waller (1973):[20][21][22] First female to serve on the Nineteenth Circuit in Illinois (1981)
  • Rita B. Garman (1968):[23] First female to serve as the Presiding Judge for the Fifth Circuit (1987) and the Fourth District Appellate Court (1995) in Illinois
  • Consuelo Bedoya-Witt (1977):[20] First Hispanic American female judge in Illinois (1988)
  • Rosemary Collins:[24] First female to serve on the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court in Illinois (1989)
  • Lynne Kawamoto (1981):[25][26][27] First Asian American female (who is Japanese American) judge in Illinois (1991)
  • Mary Ann McMorrow (1953):[28] First female to serve on the Supreme Court of Illinois (1992) and its Chief Justice (2002)
  • Nancy J. Katz:[29] First openly LGBT female judge in Illinois (upon her appointment to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1999)
  • Rena M. Van Tine (1986):[30] First Indian American female judge in Illinois (2001)
  • Pamela Leeming:[31][32] First known Pakistani American (female) judge in Illinois (2009)
  • Laura Liu (1991):[33][34][35] First Asian American female judge in Illinois (2010) and serve on the Illinois Appellate Court (2014)
  • Jessica Arong O’Brien:[36][37] First Filipino American (female) elected as a judge in Illinois (2012)
  • Vershenia Ballance Moody (1995):[38] First (African American) female to serve on the 6B Judicial District in Illinois (2013)
  • Lisa Holder White (1993):[39][40] First African American female to serve on the Fourth District Appellate Court (2013) and the Supreme Court of Illinois (2022)
  • Brenda Claudio:[41] First Latino American female to serve as a Judge of the Twenty-First Judicial Circuit in Illinois (2021)
  • Tionn Fambro Carter:[42] First African American female to serve as an Associate Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit in Illinois (2024)

Federal judges

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Attorney General

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Deputy Attorney General

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Assistant Attorney General

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  • Jean Williams (1949):[53][54] First African American female to serve as the Assistant Attorney General of Illinois

Solicitor General

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United States Attorney

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Public Defender

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  • Pearl M. Hart (1914):[56][57][58] First female (and LGBT) to serve as a public defender for the Moral Court of Chicago, Illinois (1933)

Bar Association

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  • Carole Bellows:[59] First female to serve as the President of the Illinois State Bar Association (1977)
  • Sonni Choi Williams:[60][61] First female of color (she is of Korean descent) to serve as Vice President (2022) and President (2024) of the Illinois State Bar Association

Firsts in local history

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See also

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Other topics of interest

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References

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  1. ^ Gorecki, Meg (October 1990). "Legal Pioneers: Four of Illinois First Women Lawyers" (PDF). Illinois Bar Journal: 510–515.
  2. ^ "Women Lawyers and State Bar Admission:Law Library of Congress". memory.loc.gov. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
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  4. ^ "The remarkable life and times of Alta May Hulett | Illinois State Bar Association". www.isba.org. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
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