List of first women lawyers and judges in New Mexico
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in New Mexico. 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 New Mexico's history
[edit]
Lawyers
[edit]- First female admitted: Henrietta Hume Pettijohn Buck (1892)[1][2]
- First female (actively practice): Nellie C. Brewer Pierce (1908)[2]
- First Hispanic American female: Betty Ann Camunez (1972)[2]
- First Pueblo female: Carol Jean Vigil (c. 1977)[3]
- First undocumented female: Jazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz in 2017[4]
State judges
[edit]- First female: Olga Melinda Victoria Miller in 1910[5][6]
- First female (district court): Mary Coon Walters (1962) in 1972[7][8]
- First Mexican American female (Second Judicial District): Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1978[2][9]
- First female (New Mexico Supreme Court): Mary Coon Walters (1962) in 1984[7][8]
- First female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Christina Armijo (1975) from 1996-2011[10]
- First Native American (Pueblo) (female): Carol Jean Vigil (c. 1977) in 1998[3][11][12]
- First African American female (district court): Angela Jewell in 1999[11][13]
- First female (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): Pamela B. Minzner (1972) in 1999[14]
- First Hispanic American female (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): Petra F. Jimenez Maes (1973) in 2003[15]
- First openly lesbian female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Linda Vanzi in 2010[16]
- First female (Seventh Judicial District): Mercedes C. Murphy in 2014[17]
- First female (Sixth Judicial District): Jennifer Delaney[18]
- First African American (female) (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Shammara Henderson in 2020[19]
- First openly lesbian (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): C. Shannon Bacon in 2022[20]
Federal judges
[edit]- First female (Navajo Nation Judicial Branch): Marie Roanhorse Neswood from 1976–1989[21]
- First (Latino American) female (U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico): Martha Vázquez (1978) in 1993[22]
Attorney General of New Mexico
[edit]- First Mexican American female: Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1999[2][9][23]
United States Attorney
[edit]District Attorney
[edit]- First female: Margaret Weldon Lamb (1969) from 1978-1980[2]
Political Office
[edit]- First Hispanic American female (Governor of New Mexico): Susana Martinez (1986) in 2011[26]
- First Hispanic American female (elected from the Democratic Party as the Governor of New Mexico): Michelle Lujan Grisham (1987) in 2018[27]
State Bar of New Mexico
[edit]- First African American female admitted: Barbara Brown Simmons (c. 1974)[28][29]
- First female president: Amanda L. Ashford in 1990[30]
- First Latino American female president: Mary Torres in 2002[31]
- First African American (female) president: Aja N. Brooks in 2025[32]
Firsts in local history
[edit]- Barbara Brown Simmons (c. 1974):[28][29] First African American female graduate from the University of New Mexico School of Law [Bernalillo County, New Mexico]
- Kari Brandenburg:[33] First female District Attorney for Bernalillo County, New Mexico (2000)
- Kea Riggs:[34] First female district court judge in Chaves County, New Mexico
- Esther Smith Van Soelen:[35] First female lawyer in Clovis, New Mexico [Curry County, New Mexico]
- Olga Melinda Victoria Miller:[5][6] First female judge in Doña Ana County, New Mexico (1910)
- Nancy Beard:[36] First female Magistrate Judge in Eddy County, New Mexico
- Edith Gutierrez:[37] First female (non-attorney) judge in Silver City, New Mexico [Grant County, New Mexico]
- Bettye Dean:[38] First female magistrate in Lincoln County, New Mexico (1983)
- Angela "Spence" Pacheco:[39] First female to serve as the judicial district attorney in Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe Counties, New Mexico (2008)
- Brenna Clani-Washinawatok:[40] First Native American (female) appointed as Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of New Mexico (2025) [McKinley and San Juan Counties, New Mexico]
- Irene Saiz Mirabal-Counts:[41] First female to serve as a Magistrate Judge in Otero County, New Mexico (2016)
See also
[edit]- List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
- Timeline of women lawyers in the United States
- Women in law
Other topics of interest
[edit]- List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
- List of first minority male lawyers and judges in New Mexico
References
[edit]- ^ Weatherford, Doris (January 20, 2012). Women in American Politics: History and Milestones. SAGE. ISBN 9781608710072.
- ^ a b c d e f "A Celebration of New Mexico's First Women Lawyers" (PDF). Presented by the New Mexico Women's Bar Association in Cooperation with the State Bar of New Mexico. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ a b Reports, Times Wire (March 31, 2009). "Passings". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^ "New Mexico allows immigrants here illegally to obtain law licenses". ABA Journal. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ^ a b "New Mexico's First Woman Judge" (PDF). Bar Bulletin. April 10, 2006.
- ^ a b "The First Woman Judge in New Mexico". Carrizozo News. November 11, 1910. ISSN 2166-7756. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ a b A celebration of New Mexico's first women lawyers: presented by the New Mexico Women's Bar Association with the State Bar of New Mexico. New Mexico Women's Bar Association. 2002.
- ^ a b Singleton, Sarah M.; Profession, New Mexico State Bar Task Force on Women and the Legal; Mexico, State Bar of New (1991). Final report of the New Mexico State Bar Task Force on Women and the Legal Profession. State Bar of New Mexico.
- ^ a b Bullis, Don (July 1, 2011). New Mexico Historical Biographies. BookBaby. ISBN 9781936744909.
- ^ National News. American Legion Auxiliary. 1995.
- ^ a b "TO THE BOARD OF BAR COMMISSIONERS OF THE STATE BAR OF NEW MEXICO REPORT THE STATUS OF MINORITY ATTORNEYS IN NEW MEXICO – AN UPDATE: 1990-1999". THE STATE BAR OF NEW MEXICO TASK FORCE ON MINORITIES IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION II.
- ^ Terrell, Steve (November 5, 2005). "Governor appoints long-time S.F. lawyer to replace retiring judge Vigil". The Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ Upon Jewell’s appointment as a Judge of the Second Judicial District Court in New Mexico in 1999
- ^ "Supreme Court Justice Minzner dead at 63". NMPolitics.net. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
- ^ "Justice Petra Jimenez Maes". nmcourts.sks.com. April 1, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^ "Lesbian Judge Wins Statewide Race in New Mexico". www.advocate.com. June 2, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
- ^ "District Court Judges". seventhdistrictcourt.nmcourts.gov. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ^ "Deming Pi Chapter honors 5 as 'Women We Admire'". The Deming Headlight. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- ^ Leggett, Shellye (February 18, 2020). "First African American appointed to New Mexico Court of Appeals". KOAT. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
- ^ Wilhelm, T., & Vining, R.L. (2023). Administering Justice: Placing the Chief Justice in American State Politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book.112439.
- ^ (TNS), Noel Lyn Smith | The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M. "First woman judge for Navajo courts remembered". www.abqjournal.com. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 28, 1993 · Page 1". Newspapers.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ^ García, Sonia R.; Martinez-Ebers, Valerie; Coronado, Irasema; Navarro, Sharon A.; Jaramillo, Patricia A. (June 3, 2009). Políticas: Latina Public Officials in Texas. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292779983.
- ^ "Obituary: Ruth Cooper Streeter". obits.abqjournal.com. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
- ^ Several sources consider Ruth Cooper Street the first female prosecutor in New Mexico.
- ^ Newton-Small, Jay. "Meet the First Hispanic Republican Female Governor". Time. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
- ^ Nam, Rafael (November 6, 2018). "Michelle Lujan Grisham to become New Mexico's first Democratic Latina governor". TheHill. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
- ^ a b "UNM project keeps history alive". UNM Newsroom. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ^ a b "Barbara Brown Simmons". AND YET SHE PERSISTED: DOCUMENTING WOMEN'S LIVES IN NEW MEXICO.
- ^ "Birthday Celebration". www.nmbar.org. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- ^ Garcia, Elizabeth (August 2013). "Mary Torres: First Hispanic Secretary of the ABA" (PDF). New Mexico Lawyer.
- ^ "Aja N. Brooks becomes first Black president of State Bar of New Mexico". New Mexico Sun. Retrieved February 4, 2025.
- ^ CONTRERAS, RUSSELL (January 13, 2015). "Murder charges against police put New Mexico DA in spotlight". KDBC. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
- ^ Ross, Alex. "Local judge appears before Senate Judiciary Committee | Roswell Daily Record". Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- ^ "City's first female lawyer to be honored". The Eastern New Mexico News. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
- ^ "Focus on Carlsbad Fall 2014". Issuu. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- ^ "Desert Exposure May 2010 Judge Edith Gutierrez". www.desertexposure.com. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
- ^ "Dean sworn in as magistrate". Newspapers.com. November 10, 1983.
- ^ Pacheco, Ana (February 25, 2013). Legendary Locals of Santa Fe. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-4207-8.
- ^ Mayeux, Debra. "Clani-Washinawatok is first Native judge in New Mexico's 11th district". The Journal. Retrieved February 22, 2025.
- ^ "Mirabal-Counts sworn in as Magistrate Court judge". Alamogordo Daily News. Retrieved July 9, 2019.