List of first women lawyers and judges in Illinois

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 obtain a law degree or become a political figure.

Firsts in state history
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)

Lawyers
Justice of the Peace
Judges
  • Mary Bartelme:[11][12] First female judge in Illinois (1923)
  • Edith S. Sampson (1927):[13] First African American female judge in Illinois (1962)
  • Consuelo Bedoya-Witt (1977):[14] First Hispanic American female judge in Illinois (1988)
  • Lynne Kawamoto (1981):[15][16][17] First Asian American female (who is Japanese American) judge in Illinois (1991)
  • Rena M. Van Tine (1986):[18] First Indian American female judge in Illinois (2001)
  • Pamela Leeming:[19][20] First known Pakistani American (female) judge in the U.S. (2009)
  • Laura Liu (1991):[21][22] First Asian American female judge in Illinois (2010)
District Court
  • Vershenia Ballance Moody (1995):[23] First female (and African American female) appointed as a Judge of the 6B Judicial District in Illinois (2013)
Circuit Court
  • Rosemary Collins:[24] First female appointed as a Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit (1989)
  • Rita B. Garman (1968):[25] First female to serve as the Presiding Judge for the Fifth Circuit (1987)
  • Jane D. Waller (1973):[14][26][27] First female appointed as a Judge of the Nineteenth Circuit in Illinois (1981)
Appellate Court
  • Rita B. Garman (1968):[25] First female to serve as a Judge of the Fourth District Appellate Court (1995) in Illinois
  • Lisa Holder White (1993):[28] First African American female appointed as a Judge of the Fourth District Appellate Court in Illinois (2013)
Supreme Court
District Court
Appellate Court
  • Ann Claire Williams (1975):[30] First African American female appointed as a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (1999)

Attorney General

Deputy Attorney General
  • Jill Wine-Banks:[37][38] First female to serve as the Deputy Attorney General for Illinois

Assistant Attorney General
  • Jean Williams (1949):[39][40] First African American female to serve as the Assistant Attorney General of Illinois

Solicitor General
  • Jill Wine-Banks:[37][38] First female to serve as the Solicitor General for Illinois

United States Attorney

Public Defender
  • Pearl M. Hart (1914):[42][43][44] First female (and LGBT) to serve as a public defender for the Moral Court of Chicago, Illinois (1933)

Bar Association
  • Carole Bellows:[45] First female to serve as the President of the Illinois State Bar Association (1977)

Firsts in local history

Alphabetized by county name

Region

Adams County

Bureau County
  • Charlotte Safranske Martin (1976):[50] First woman to be elected State's Attorney of Bureau County, Illinois. She won the vote 9,883 to 8,171. She was also the first Democrat to be elected to that post in 44 years.

Christian County

Clark County

Coles County

Cook County
  • Emma Baumann:[53] First female to graduate from the Chicago College of Law (1890) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Catherine Waugh McCulloch (1886):[8][9][10] First female Justice of the Peace in Cook County, Illinois (1907-1911)
  • Nellie Carlin (1896):[54][55][56][10][57] First female to serve as the Public Guardian (1911) and Assistant State's Attorney in Cook County, Illinois (1918)
  • Mary Bartelme:[11][12] First female judge in Chicago, Illinois (1923) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Lynne Kawamoto (1981):[15][16][17] First Asian American female (who is Japanese American) to serve as an Associate Judge for Cook County, Illinois (1991)
  • Sophia Hall (1967):[58] First female to serve as a Presiding Judge in Cook County, Illinois (1991)
  • Pamela Leeming:[19][59] First Pakistani American female to serve as an Associate Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County (2009)
  • Jessica Arong O’Brien:[60] First Filipino American female (and Filipino American in general) judge in Cook County, Illinois
  • Anita Alvarez:[61] First Hispanic American female elected as the State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois (2008)
  • Kim Foxx:[62] First African American female elected as the State’s Attorney for Cook County, Illinois (2016)
  • Lori Lightfoot (1989):[63] First African American and openly LGBT female (a former prosecutor) to serve as Mayor of Chicago (2019) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Esther Rothstein:[64] First female to serve as President of the Chicago Bar Association (1977) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]
  • Aurora Austriaco (1990):[65] First Filipino American female to serve as the President of the Chicago Bar Association (2012-2013) [Cook and DuPage Counties, Illinois]

Cumberland County

DuPage County

Edgar County

Kane County
  • Marie Hunter Willis:[68] First female lawyer in Kane County, Illinois
  • Pamela Jansen:[69][70] First female judge in Kane County, Illinois (1987)
  • Sandra T. Parga:[70] First Hispanic female judge in Kane County, Illinois (2017)

Kankakee County
  • J. Imani Drew (c. 1980s):[71] First African-American female judge in Kankakee County, Illinois (2016). She was also the first African-American prosecutor (1983) in the county's history.

Kendall County

Lake County
  • Jane D. Waller (1973):[14][26][27] First female judge in Lake County, Illinois
  • Barbara Gilleran-Johnson:[14] First female appointed as a Judge of the Lake County Juvenile Court [Lake County, Illinois]

LaSalle County

Lee County

Macon County

Madison County

McLean County

Menard County
  • M. Carol Pope:[79] First female to serve as the State's Attorney for Menard County, Illinois, as well as the first judge from the 8th Judicial Circuit and the county to be assigned to the Fourth District Appellate Court

St. Clair County
  • Alexis Otis-Lewis:[80] First African American female judge in St. Clair County, Illinois (1991)

Sangamon County

Stark County

Vermillion County

Will County
  • Susan Pierson De Witt:[84] First female to practice law in Will County, Illinois
  • Carmen Julia Lynn Goodman:[85] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Circuit Court in Will County, Illinois (2007)

Williamson County

Woodford County

See also

Other topics of interest

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