List of first women lawyers and judges in Tennessee

This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Tennessee. 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
Lutie Lytle: First African American female lawyer in Tennessee (1897)
Bernice B. Donald: First African American female judge in Tennessee (1982)

Lawyers
  • Lutie Lytle (1897):[1] First African American female admitted to practice law in Tennessee. She worked thereafter as an educator and librarian at Tennessee College.
  • Marion Scudder Griffin (1907):[2] First female lawyer to practice law in Tennessee
  • Frances Wolf (1907):[3] First female lawyer to argue before the Tennessee Court of Civil Appeals
Judges
District Court
Circuit Court
  • Rita L. Stotts:[12] First African American female to become a Circuit Court judge in Tennessee (2000)
Appellate Court
Supreme Court
District Court
  • Pamela L. Reeves (1979):[14][15] First female appointed as a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (2014)
Bankruptcy Court
  • Bernice B. Donald (1979):[10][11] First African American female appointed by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to serve as a bankruptcy judge (1988)
Circuit Court
  • Bernice B. Donald (1979):[10][11][16] First African American (female) to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Tennessee (2011)

Deputy Attorney General
  • Patricia J. Cottrell (1976):[17] First female Deputy Attorney General of Tennessee

Assistant Attorney General
  • Etrula T. Trotter:[18] First female (and African American) to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for Tennessee (1974)

United States Attorney

Assistant United States Attorney

Solicitor General
  • Andrée Blumstein (1981):[20][21] First female Solicitor General of Tennessee (2014)

Bar Association
  • Pamela L. Reeves (1979):[14][15] First female to serve as the President of the Tennessee Bar Association (1997-1998)
  • Joycelyn Stevenson:[22] First African American female (and African American in general) to serve as the President of the Tennessee Bar Association

Firsts in local history

Alphabetized by county name

Blount County

Davidson County
  • Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey (1968):[7] First female lawyer in Nashville's U.S. Attorney's Office. She is also the first tenure-track female professor at Vanderbilt Law School. [Davidson County, Tennessee]
  • Angelita Dalton:[24] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Davidson County Criminal Court (2017)

DeKalb County

Hamblen County

Hamilton County

Hardeman County

Knox County

Madison County

Maury County
  • Dabney Anderson:[34] First female magistrate of the Maury County Quarterly Court (1974)

Rutherford County
  • Nancy Smith Sellers (1950):[35] First female lawyer in Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee
  • Donna Scott Davenport:[36] First female judge in Rutherford County, Tennessee (2000)

Shelby County
  • Camille Kelley:[4][5][6] First female to serve as a Judge of the Juvenile Court of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee (1920)
  • Alma Hogshead Law:[37] First female magistrate in Shelby County, Tennessee (1929)
  • Nell Sanders Aspero (1933):[38] First female lawyer in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee
  • Ann Pugh (1976):[39] First female judge in Shelby County, Tennessee
  • Nancy B. Sorak:[40] First female elected as a judge in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. She was also the first female Public Defender for the City Court.
  • Earnestine Dorse:[12] First African American female to serve as a judge in Memphis, Tennessee (1990) [Shelby County, Tennessee]
  • Carolyn Wade Brackett:[12] First African American female to serve as a Judge of the Criminal Court in Shelby County, Tennessee (1994)
  • Karen D. Webster:[12] First African American (female) elected as a Judge of the Shelby County Probate Court (2006)
  • Amy Weirich:[41] First female to serve as the District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee (2011)
  • Phyllis Aluko:[42] First female (and African American female) Chief Public Defender of Shelby County, Tennessee (2019)
  • Lee Ann Pafford Dobson:[43] First female judge in Collierville, Tennessee (2019) [Shelby County, Tennessee]

Van Buren County
  • Susan Marttala:[44] First female to serve as District Attorney in the State of Tennessee as well as for the Thirty-First Judicial District in Tennessee (1986) [Van Buren and Warren Counties, Tennessee]

Warren County
  • Susan Marttala:[44] First female to serve as District Attorney in the State of Tennessee as well as for the Thirty-First Judicial District in Tennessee (1986) Van Buren and Warren Counties, Tennessee

Williamson County

See also

Other topics of interest

References
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  2. "Marion Scudder Griffin Collection". memphislibrary.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  3. "Frances Wolf | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  4. "CAMILLE KELLEY, A'MEMPHIS JUDGE; First :Woman Appointed to Municipal Juvenile-Court in the South Is Dead". The New York Times. 1955-01-29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
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  18. Clark Grad is State's 1st Female Asst. Atty. Gen. Jet. 1974-11-07.
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  43. "Lee Ann Pafford Dobson is sworn in as Collierville's first female judge". colliervilleherald.net. January 17, 2019. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
  44. "Susan Marttala Appointed First Female District Attorney in the State of Tennessee". search.proquest.com. 1990-02-07. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
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