List of first women lawyers and judges in Arizona

This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Arizona. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions, such as becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in Arizona's history

Lawyers

First woman: Sarah Herring Sorin (1892)
First Hispanic American woman: Mary Stella Cota-Robles (1940)
First African American woman: Jean Williams (1949)
First woman to serve as the chief staff attorney for the Supreme Court of Arizona: Sarah D. Grant
First woman to start a practice on Arizona Indian Reservation and serve as general counsel to the Havasupai: Martha Blue (1967)
First Asian American woman: Roxanne Song Ong (1979)

State judges

First female justices of the peace: Nellie T. Bush and Emeline Ferguson in 1914
First woman to unsuccessfully run for court superior court judge: Gertrude Converse in 1948
First woman (Arizona Superior Court): Lorna E. Lockwood (1925) in 1950
First Latino American woman (reputed): Anita Lewis ChÃÂ¡vez (1947)
First woman (chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court): Lorna E. Lockwood (1925) in 1961
First woman (Arizona Court of Appeals): Mary M. Schroeder in 1975
First African American woman: Jean Williams (1949) in 1977
First Asian American woman: Roxanne Song Ong (1979) circa 1986
First African American woman (justice of the peace): Pamela Gutierrez in 1994
First Native American (female) elected to the Arizona Superior Court: Gloria J. Kindig in 1996
First Asian American woman (Arizona Superior Court): Rosa Mroz in 2004
First Latino American woman (Arizona Court of Appeals): Patricia A. Orozco (1989) in 2004
First openly lesbian woman: Tracey Nadzieja in 2018
First Navajo woman (chief justice of tribal high court): Claudine Bates-Arthur (1970)
First Muslim woman (justice of the peace pro tempore): Laila Ikram (2022)
First African American (female) and Latino American woman (Arizona Supreme Court): Maria Elena Cruz in 2025

Federal judges

First Latino American woman (U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona): Mary H. Murguia (1985) in 2000
First Native American (Hopi) woman (U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona): Diane Humetewa (1993) in 2014
First South Asian (female) (United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit): Roopali Desai in 2022

Attorney general of Arizona

First woman: Janet Napolitano (1983) from 1999-2003

Assistant attorney general

First woman: Lorna E. Lockwood (1925) in 1948

United States attorney

First woman: Mary Anne Richey (nÃÂ©e Reimann) in 1960
First Native American (Hopi) woman: Diane Humetewa (1993) in 2007

Assistant United States attorney

First woman: Mary Anne Richey (nÃÂ©e Reimann) around 1954

County attorney

First woman: Rose Sosnowsky Silver in 1969
First Latino American woman: Patricia A. Orozco (1989) in 1999
First Navajo (female): Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren in 2024

Assistant county attorney

First woman: Loretta Savage Whitney in 1943

Political office

First openly bisexual woman (elected to the U.S. Congress): Kyrsten Sinema (2005) in 2013

State bar of Arizona

First woman (president): Roxana C. Bacon in 1991
First openly lesbian woman (president): Amelia Craig Cramer in 2012
First Asian American (female) (president): Lisa Loo (1988) in 2016
First Latino American woman (president): Jessica Sanchez in 2022

Firsts in local history

Donna Grimsley: First woman to serve on the Apache County Superior Court, Arizona (2003)
Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren: First Navajo woman to serve as the Apache County attorney (2024)
Ann Littrell: First female to serve on the Cochise County Superior Court in Arizona
Helen Colton: First female judge in Coconino County, Arizona (1919)
Ann Kirkpatrick (1979): First female deputy county attorney for Coconino County, Arizona
Daisy Flores: First female county attorney in Gila County, Arizona
Monica Lynn Stauffer: First female to serve on the Superior Court of Greenlee County, Arizona (1998)
Jessica Quickle: First female judge in La Paz County, Arizona (2018)
Anita Lewis ChÃÂ¡vez (1947): Reputed to be the first Latino American female lawyer in Maricopa County, Arizona
Gloria Ybarra: First Hispanic woman to serve on the Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona (1985)
Sarah D. Grant: First woman to serve as the presiding criminal judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court
Rosa Mroz: First Asian American woman to serve on the Maricopa County Superior Court (2004)
Barbara Rodriguez Mundell: First Hispanic woman to serve as the presiding judge of Maricopa County, Arizona (2005)
Roxanne Song Ong: First Asian woman to serve as the presiding judge of the Phoenix Municipal Court (Maricopa County, Arizona; 2005)
Allister Adel: First woman to serve as the county attorney of Maricopa County, Arizona (2019)
Charlotte Wells: First female judge in Mohave County, Arizona (2002)
Carolyn Holliday: First woman elected to the Superior Court of Navajo County, Arizona, (1996) and serve as its presiding judge (1999)
Alice Truman: First female justice of the peace and judge in Pima County, Arizona (1962)
Rose Sosnowsky Silver: First woman appointed as the Pima County attorney (1969)
Barbara LaWall (1976): First woman elected as the Pima County attorney (1996)
Lina Rodriguez (1977): First Hispanic American to serve on the Pima County Superior Court, Arizona (1984)
Laine Sklar: First female magistrate in Marana, Arizona (c. 2006) (Pima County, Arizona)
Margarita Bernal (c. 1979): First Latino American woman to serve as a municipal court judge in Tucson, Arizona (Pima County, Arizona)
Anna Montoya-Paez: First woman elected to the Santa Cruz County Superior Court, Arizona
Sheila Polk (1982): First woman to serve as the Yavapai County attorney (2004)
Nellie T. Bush and Emeline Ferguson: First women elected as justices of the peace in Yuma County, Arizona (1914)
Patricia A. Orozco (1989): First Latino American woman appointed as the county attorney for Yuma County, Arizona (1999)

References