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

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. 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 Vermont's history

Lawyers

*First female: Jessie Bigwood (1902) *First female to practice before the

Vermont Supreme Court The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont. Unlike most other states, the Vermont Supreme Court hears appeals directly from the trial courts, as Vermont has no intermediate appeals court. The Court ...

: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1926 *First female to independently try and win a murder case: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1929

State judges

* First female (justice of the peace): Beatrice Y. Brown (1922) * First female (probate court): Mary Adams (1926) from 1928-1949 * First female (trial court): Grace Johnson Murphy McGuire (1940) in 1965 * First female (state-level trial court): Linda Levitt (1975) in 1984 *First female (environmental): Merideth Wright in 1990 *First female ( Supreme Court of Vermont): Denise R. Johnson (1980) in 1990 *First openly lesbian female ( Supreme Court of Vermont): Beth Robinson (1989) in 2011 *First female to judicially serve the same time as her spouse: Kirstin Schoonover in 2015 *First woman of color (Chinese descent) ( Supreme Court of Vermont):

Nancy Waples Nancy Jear Waples (born October 7, 1960) is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court since 2022. Early life and education Waples is the daughter of Chinese immigrants So Kam "Susie" Jear and Yee R ...

in 2022

Federal judges

*First female (U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont):

Christina Reiss Christina Clair Reiss (born September 3, 1962) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont. She is the first female judge to serve in the District of Vermont. Early life and education Born i ...

(1980) in 2009 *First openly lesbian female (

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

in Vermont): Beth Robinson (1989) in 2021

Attorney General of Vermont The Vermont Attorney General is a statewide elected executive official in the U.S. state of Vermont who is elected every two years. It was created by an act of the Vermont General Assembly in 1790, repealed in 1797, and revived in 1904. The office ...

* First female:

Charity Clark Charity Rae Clark (born July 15, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as Vermont Attorney General since January 2023. Early life and career Charity Rae Clark was born in Sprin ...

in 2022

Assistant Attorney General

* First female: Georgiana Miranda around 1972

State's Attorney

*First female: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1927

United States Attorney

* First female (acting): Eugenia Cowles in 2014 *First female (permanent): Christina E. Nolan in 2017

Political Office

* First female (Lieutenant Governor): Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1955

Vermont Bar Association The Vermont Bar Association (VBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of Vermont. History Founded in September 1878 in Montpelier, the Vermont Bar Association remains the only professional organization for lawyers, judges, paralegals a ...

* First female (president): Ellen Mercer Fallon (1977) from 1987-1988

Firsts in local history

* Beatrice Y. Brown (1922): First female lawyer in Southern Vermont * Madeline Cecelia Wood: First female probate judge in

Addison County, Vermont Addison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,363. Its shire town ( county seat) is the town of Middlebury. History Iroquois settled in the county before Europeans arrived in ...

(1938) * Mary Adams (1926): First female probate judge in Bennington County, Vermont (1928–1949) * Consuelo N. Bailey (1925): First female State's Attorney in

Chittenden County, Vermont Chittenden County () is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, its population was 168,323. The county seat is Vermont's most populous municipality, the city of Burlington. The county has over a quarte ...

(1927)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:First women lawyers and judges in Vermont Lawyers, Vermont, first Vermont, first Women, Vermont, first Women, Vermont, first Women in Vermont Lawyers and judges Vermont lawyers