List of first women lawyers and judges in Ohio-The Daily Ledger

This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Ohio. 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 Ohio's history

Law School

First female law graduate: Clara Millard in 1911

Lawyers

First female: Nettie Cronise Lutes (1873) First African American female: Daisy D. Perkins (1919)

List of first women lawyers and judges in Ohio

State judges

First female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio: Maureen O'Connor (elected as associate justice in 2002 and 2008, elected as chief justice in 2010 and 2016.) Retirement 2022 by constitutional age limit. First female: Florence E. Allen (1914) in 1920 First female (Supreme Court of Ohio): Florence E. Allen (1914) in 1922 First female (municipal court): Mary B. Grossman (1912) in 1923 First African American female: Lillian W. Burke (1951) in 1969 First African American female (elected): C. Ellen Connally (1971) in 1979 First openly lesbian female: Mary Wiseman (1998) in 2007 First Hispanic American (female) (Ohio Court of Appeals; appointed): Keila Cosme in 2009 First African American female (Supreme Court of Ohio): Yvette McGee Brown in 2011 First (Asian American) female (Fourth District Court of Appeals): Marie Hoover (1994) in 2012 First Egyptian American female: Sherrie Mikhail Miday (2001) in 2016 First Latino American female (Ohio Court of Appeals; elected): Marilyn Zayas-Davis in 2016 First African American female (Supreme Court of Ohio): Melody J. Stewart in 2018 First African American female (Tenth District Court of Appeals): Laurel Beatty Blunt in 2018 First Hispanic American female (Supreme Court of Ohio; sit-in): Marilyn Zayas-Davis in 2020

List of first women lawyers and judges in Ohio

Federal judges

First female (U.S. Court of Appeals - Sixth Circuit): Florence E. Allen (1914) in 1934 First female (federal district court): Ann Aldrich (1950) in 1980 First African American female (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio): Benita Y. Pearson (1995)

List of first women lawyers and judges in Ohio

Attorney General of Ohio

First female: Betty Montgomery from 1995-2003

Assistant Attorney General

First African American female: Helen Elsie Austin (1930) in 1937

United States Attorney

First African American female (Northern District of Ohio): Marisa T. Darden was confirmed in 2022, though she withdrew before she officially took office