List of first women lawyers and judges in the Territories of the U.S.

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

American Samoa

Lawyer

  • Barbara A. Sena Waite (c. 1970s):[1][2][3] First female lawyer in American Samoa

Judge

  • Mere Tuiasosopo Betham:[4][5][6] First female judge (native-born) in American Samoa (1991)[7]

Public Defender

  • Barbara A. Sena Waite (c. 1970s):[1][2][3] First female to serve as the Public Defender for American Samoa (c. 1972-1974)

Bar Association

  • Barbara A. Sena Waite (c. 1970s):[1][2][3] First female to serve as the President of the American Samoa Bar Association

Guam

Lawyers

Judges

  • Janet Healy Weeks (c. 1970s):[8][9][10] First female judge in Guam
  • Marie Tydingco-Gatewood (1983):[12][13][14] First Chamorro female to serve as a judge in Guam (1994) and Chief Judge of the District Court of Guam (2006)
  • Katherine Maraman:[15][16] First female justice appointed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Guam (2017)

Attorney General

Assistant Attorney General

  • Marie Tydingco-Gatewood (1983):[12][13] First Chamorro female appointed as the Assistant Attorney General in the Prosecution Division on Guam (1984)

United States Attorney

Assistant United States Attorney

  • Ellen A. Lockwood:[18] First female to serve as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for Guam (1987)

Bar Association

  • Jacqueline Taitano-Terlaje:[19] First Chamorro female to serve as the President of the Guam Bar Association (2017)

Northern Mariana Islands

Ramona Villagomez Manglona: First female judge of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands (2011)

Lawyer

  • Deanne C. Siemer (Bar No. F0116):[20] First female lawyer in the Northern Mariana Islands (c. 1984)
  • Virginia Sablan-Onerheim:[21] First indigenous female lawyer in the Northern Mariana Islands (1995)
  • Ramona Villagomez Manglona:[22][23] First indigenous female lawyer to pass the CNMI bar exam (1996)
  • Ellsbeth Viola Alepuyo (Bar No. F0316):[20][24] First Carolinian female admitted to the CNMI Bar Association (2005)

Judges

Attorney General

United States Attorney

  • Alicia Limtiaco:[17][18] First female to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern Mariana Islands (c. 2010-2017)

First in a particular region in the Northern Mariana Islands

  • Lucia Blanco-Maratita:[25] First female lawyer in Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

Lawyers

Judges

  • Herminia Tormes García (1917):[26][27][28][29] First female judge in Puerto Rico (1929)
  • Judith Seda Matos:[32] First female Justice of the Peace in Puerto Rico (1936-1941)
  • Carmen Consuelo Cerezo (1969):[33] First Puerto Rican female appointed as a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (1980). She is the first female federal judge in Puerto Rico.
  • Miriam Naveira:[34] First female appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (1985) and its Chief Justice (2003)
  • Maite Oronoz Rodríguez (2001):[35] First openly LGBT female justice appointed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (2016)

Secretary of Justice

United States Attorney

Assistant Federal Public Defender

  • Aida Delgado-Colón (1980):[39] First female appointed as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Puerto Rico (1982). She later served as the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (2011).

Bar Association

Firsts in a particular region in Puerto Rico

  • Isabel Llompart Zeno:[44] First female appointed as an Administrative Judge in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2007)

United States Virgin Islands

Lawyer

  • Edith Bornn (1948):[45] First female lawyer in the United States Virgin Islands

Law Clerk

  • Glenda L. Lake:[46] First female to serve as the Clerk of Court for the District of the Virgin Islands (2012)

Judge

  • Eileen Ramona Petersen:[47] First female judge in the United States Virgin Islands (1971)
  • Maria M. Cabret:[48] First female of Puerto Rican descent to serve as a Judge of the Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands (1987), Presiding Judge of the Territorial Court (2000-2006), and Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands (c. 2006)
  • Wilma A. Lewis:[49] First female to serve as a District Court Judge for the United States Virgin Islands (2011)

Attorney General

Bar Association

  • Adriane J. Dudley:[52][53] First female to serve as the President of the Virgin Islands Bar Association (1980)

St. Thomas

See also

Other topics of interest

References

  1. Women lawyers' journal. 1974.
  2. Governor, American Samoa (1972). Annual Report of the Governor of American Samoa: To the Secretary of the Interior. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  3. The Samoan pacific law journal. American Samoa Bar Association. 1974.
  4. "Congressional Record, Volume 143 Issue 111 (Thursday, July 31, 1997)". www.gpo.gov. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  5. Pacific Magazine. 1997.
  6. International Year Book Covering the Year ... Macmillan Educational Company. 1991.
  7. Upon her appointment as an associate judge of the High Court of American Samoa
  8. "Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 7 - HONORING GUAM SUPREME COURT JUSTICE JANET HEALY WEEKS". gpo.gov. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  9. "Justice Janet Healy Weeks Receives 2009 Husticia Award". Guam Bar Association. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  10. "Honorable Janet Healy Weeks". Judiciary of Guam. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  11. "Biography". Retrieved 2016-09-28.
  12. "Hon. Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, Chief Judge - District Court of Guam". www.gud.uscourts.gov. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  13. Congressional Record. V. 147, Pt. 3. Government Printing Office. March 26, 2001.
  14. "2006 Annual Report". Guam Courts.
  15. Jesus, Donna De. "Katherine Maraman installed as first woman Chief Justice | PNC News First". pacificnewscenter.com. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  16. "2016 JUDICIARY OF GUAM Annual Report" (PDF).
  17. "I MINA 'TRENTAI TRES NA L/HESLATURAN GUAHAN2015 (FIRST) Regular Session". Guam Legislature. 2015.
  18. "United States Attorney's Office Recognizes Women's History Month by Honoring the Districts' First Female U.S Attorney and AUSA". www.justice.gov. 2019-03-29. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  19. Post, Mindy Aguon |The Guam Daily. "Taitano-Terlaje elected president of Guam Bar Association". The Guam Daily Post. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  20. "CNMI Bar Association Members". Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  21. "Commonwealth Superior Court Former Judges" (PDF). 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  22. McPhetres, Samuel F. (2004-01-01). "Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands". The Contemporary Pacific. 16 (1): 132–137. doi:10.1353/cp.2004.0022. ISSN 1527-9464.
  23. "Obama nominates Ramona Villagomez Manglona to be Federal District Court Judge | Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan". sablan.house.gov. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  24. "Three women admitted to CNMI Bar". Saipan News, Headlines, Events, Ads | Saipan Tribune. 2005-04-29. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  25. MVAdmin. "Still no new judicial nominee". Marianas Variety. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
  26. "Mujeres pioneras del Derecho: Bibliografía". issuu. Retrieved 2017-12-19.
  27. Revista del Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). El Colegio. 1978.
  28. León, Pablo Berga y Ponce de (1917). Revista de legislación y jurisprudencia de la Asociación de abogados de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Comité de revista y legislación de la Asociación.
  29. Revista de derecho puertorriqueño (in Spanish). Escuela de Derecho, Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico. 1976.
  30. Upon her admission to the Federal Court for the District of Puerto Rico
  31. Méndez-Méndez, Serafín; Fernandez, Ronald (2015-07-14). Puerto Rico Past and Present: An Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781440828324.
  32. Arbolay, Pedro J. Rivera; Rivera, Pura A. (1998). Pueblos de nuestro Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas Editores. ISBN 9781881713678.
  33. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1980-1981, Book 2: May 24 to September 26, 1980. Government Printing Office.
  34. "Fallece Miriam Naveira Merly, primera jueza presidenta del Supremo". El Nuevo Dia (in Spanish). 2018-04-15. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  35. "Puerto Rico appoints first openly gay chief justice | Sun Times National". 2017-02-02. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  36. Mujer, Nueva. "Estas son las mujeres que han liderado el Departamento de Justicia". Nueva Mujer. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  37. "Meet the U.S. Attorney". www.justice.gov. 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  38. Congressional Record : Daily Digest of the 110th Congress First Session 2007. Government Printing Office.
  39. MORALES-ECHEVERRÍA, NATALIA. "Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colón Chief Judge, District of Puerto Rico".
  40. Revista del Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). El Colegio. 1993.
  41. "Celebran primera asamblea de abogadas". Claridad (in Spanish). 2019-03-12. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
  42. "SENADO DE PUERTO RICO DIARIO DE SESIONES: PROCEDIMIENTOS Y DEBATES DE LA DECIMOQUINTA ASAMBLEA LEGISLATIVA TERCERA SESION ORDINARIA AÑO 2006" (PDF). SENADO DE PUERTO RICO. March 6, 2006.
  43. ivetteromero (2012-09-13). "Ana Irma Rivera Lassén: New President of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico". Repeating Islands. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  44. "Con larga trayectoria la nueva jueza administradora de los tribunales". El Nuevo Dia (in Spanish). 2014-09-25. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  45. United States of America Congressional Record. Government Printing Office.
  46. "Newly Appointed Clerk of Court | District Court of the Virgin Islands |". www.vid.uscourts.gov. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  47. Ltd, Earl G. Graves (April 1992). Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves, Ltd.
  48. "Judiciary Annual Report 2017: Justices" (PDF). U.S. Virgin Islands Judiciary & Court System.
  49. "Wilma Lewis '78 Named District Court Judge for US Virgin Islands". www.swarthmore.edu. 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  50. "NAAG | Virgin Islands Former Attorneys General". www.naag.org. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  51. "WOMEN'S AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HISTORY MONTH (Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 47)". March 19, 2015.
  52. "Past Presidents - Virgin Islands Bar Association". vibar.org. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  53. Board of Governors. American Bar Association. April 1996.
  54. "Soraya Diase Coffelt 81 Lectures on the Struggle for Citizenship in the US Virgin Islands". www.lawschool.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
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