List of first women lawyers and judges in Georgia

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

Law Degree

Viola Ross Napier, first to practice before the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia

Lawyers

Judges
Glenda Hatchett: First African American woman Chief Presiding Judge in Georgia
  • Annie Ogburn Anderson:[5][6][7] First female judge in Georgia (1922)
  • Edith Grant Ingram:[8] First African American female judge in Georgia (1969)
  • Dorothy Robinson:[9][10] First female judge appointed to a court of record in Georgia (1972)
  • Rufe McCombs Maulsby:[11] First female elected as a judge without prior appointment in Georgia (1975)
  • Glenda Hatchett (1977):[12] First African American female to become a Chief Presiding Judge in Georgia (1990)
  • Carolina Colin-Antonini:[13][14] First Latino American female judge in Georgia (2001)
Superior Court
  • Phyllis A. Kravitch (1943):[9] First female elected as a Judge of the Superior Court in Georgia (1976)
  • Leah Ward Sears (1980):[15] First African American female appointed as a Judge of the Superior Court (1988)
Appellate Court
  • Dorothy Beasley (1969):[16] First female appointed as a Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals (1984)
  • Anne Elizabeth Barnes:[17] First female to serve as a Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals (1999) without having served a prior judgeship
  • M. Yvette Miller:[18] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals (1999) and its Chief Judge
  • Carla Wong McMillian:[9][19] First Asian American female (and Asian American in general) to become a Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals (2013)
Supreme Court
  • Dorothy Robinson:[9][10] First female to sit as a temporary judge on the Georgia Supreme Court (1985)
  • Leah Ward Sears (1980):[15][20] First female (and African American female) appointed as a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court (1992). She was also the first African American female appointed as the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court (2005).
  • Carla Wong McMillian:[9][19][21] First Asian American female to sit on the Georgia Supreme Court (2015). She became a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in 2020.
District Court
Appellate Court

Assistant Attorney General

  • Rubye Jackson:[24] First female to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for Georgia

United States Attorney

District Attorney

  • Cheryl Fisher Custer:[9] First female to become a District Attorney in Georgia (1981)
  • Shalena Jones: First African American female district attorney elected in Chatham (2020)
  • Fani Willis: First African American female district attorney elected in Fulton (2020)
  • Joyette Holmes: First African American female district attorney appointed in Cobb (2019)
  • Patsy Austin-Gatson: First African American female district attorney elected in Gwinnett (2020)
  • Anita Howard: First African American female district attorney elected in Macon Circuit (2020)
  • Deborah Gonzalez: First Hispanic district attorney elected in Georgia (Western Circuit, 2020)
  • Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming: First African American female district attorney elected in Stone Mountain Circuit (2004)

Bar Associations

  • Donna Barwick:[26] First female to become President of the Young Lawyers Division (now known as the Younger Lawyers Section) (1988-1989)
  • Linda Klein:[9] First female President of the State Bar of Georgia (1997)
  • Patrise M. Perkins-Hooker:[9] First African American female (and African American in general) to serve as President of the State Bar of Georgia (2014)

Firsts in local history

Alphabetized by county name

Athens-Clark County

Baker County

Baldwin County

Bartow County

Ben Hill County

Bibb County

Bulloch County

Calhoun County

Chatham County

  • Sarah Estelle ("Stella") Akin (1917):[34] First female lawyer in Savannah, Georgia [Chatham County, Georgia]
  • Mary V. Clark Creech (1939):[35] First female lawyer in Savannah, Georgia to have a courtroom practice [Chatham County, Georgia]

Clayton County

Cobb County

  • Helen Huff (1939):[36] First female lawyer in Cobb County, Georgia
  • Dorothy Robinson:[10] First female to serve as a Judge of the Cobb County Superior Court, Georgia (1972)
  • Adele Grubbs (1969):[37] First female to serve as the Assistant District Attorney for Cobb County, Georgia (1977)
  • Joyette Holmes:[38] First female (and African American) to serve as the District Attorney for Cobb County, Georgia (2019)

Crisp County

Decatur County

DeKalb County

  • Eleonore Raoul:[9] First female to graduate from Emory University’s School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia (1920) [DeKalb and Fulton Counties, Georgia]
  • Sarah Irene Brown, Lucine Milan Dalton, Ann Kimsey and Mrs. Holbrook:[9] First females to graduate from John Marshall Law School (1938) [DeKalb and Fulton Counties, Georgia]
  • Mary Welcome (1968):[40] First African American female Court Solicitor in Atlanta, Georgia ([DeKalb and Fulton Counties, Georgia; 1975)
  • Linda W. Hunter (1981):[41] First African American female judge of the DeKalb Superior Court and Chief Judge and Administrative Judge of the DeKalb Superior Court [DeKalb County, Georgia]
  • Carol W. Hunstein:[42] First female elected as a Judge of the Superior Court bench in DeKalb County, Georgia (1984)
  • Sharon Mackenzie and Diana McDonald:[9] First females to graduate from the Georgia State University College of Law (1984) [DeKalb and Fulton Counties, Georgia]
  • Catharina Haynes (1986):[23] First female graduate from Emory University’s School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia to be appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [DeKalb and Fulton Counties, Georgia]

Dooly County

  • Denise Fachini:[31] First female appointed as a Judge of the Cordele Judicial Circuit [Ben Hill, Crisp, Dooly, and Wilcox Counties, Georgia]

Fannin County

Fayette County

  • Kathy Valencia:[44] First female appointed as a Judge of the Fayette County Magistrate Court, Georgia (2010)

Forsyth County

  • Jane Kent Plaginos Mitchell (1971):[45] First female lawyer in Forsyth County, Georgia

Fulton County

Glynn County

Gordon County

Grady County

Greene County

Gwinnett County

  • Ruth Rocker McMullin:[49] First Vietnamese American female judge in Gwinnett County, Georgia
  • Ronda Colvin-Leary:[50] First African American female elected as a Judge of the Gwinnett County State Court (2018) [Gwinnett County, Georgia]
  • Tiffany Porter:[51] First African American (female) to serve as the Associate Judge of Duluth, Georgia (2019) [Gwinnett County, Georgia]
  • Tadia Whitner:[52][53] First African American (female) appointed as a Judge of the Gwinnett County Superior Court (2019)
  • Angela D. Duncan:[54] First openly LGBT female to serve as a Judge of the Gwinnett County Superior Court (2020)

Hancock County

Henry County

Jasper County

Jones County

Laurens County

Macon-Bibb County

Mitchell County

Morgan County

Murray County

Newton County

Putnam County

Walton County

Wilcox County

Wilkinson County

See also

Other topics of interest

References

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