List of first women lawyers and judges in Iowa

This is a list of Iowa's first women lawyers and judges. It includes the year 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 Iowa's history

Law degree

First female law graduate: Mary Beth Hickey in 1873

Lawyers

First female: Arabella Mansfield (1869)
First female (actively practice): Judith Ellen Foster: (1872)
First African American female: Gertrude Rush (1918)

State judges

First female: Lynne Brady Neuhaus from 1973-2002
First female (Iowa Court of Appeals): Janet Johnson from 1978-1983
First female (Iowa Supreme Court): Linda K. Neuman from 1986-2003
First female (Chief Justice; Iowa Supreme Court): Marsha K. Ternus in 2006
First African American female: Romonda Belcher-Ford (1995) in 2010
First Latino American female: Kimberly Sue Ayotte in 2019

Federal judges

First female (Seventh Judicial District): Margaret Briles from 1977-1992
First female (serve on the bench of either of Iowa's federal district courts): Celeste F. Bremer (1977)
First female (Fifth Judicial District): Linda R. Reade (1980) from 1993-2002
First female (Chief Judge; Seventh Judicial District): Bobbi M. Alpers (1983) in 2006
First female (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa and confirmed as an Article III judge): Stephanie Marie Rose (1996) beginning in 2012

Attorney General of Iowa

First female: Bonnie Campbell (1985) from 1991-1995

Assistant United States Attorney

First African American (female) (Northern District of Iowa): Stephanie Wright

County Attorney

First female: Emily L. Newbold in 1923

Iowa State Bar Association

First female president: Carroll J. Reasoner

Firsts in local history

Nancy Whittenburg: First female appointed as a district county judge in District 3A of Iowa (2003)
Mary Sokolovske: First female appointed as a district county judge in District 3B of Iowa (2000)
Dusti Relph (2005): First female appointed as a Judge of Iowa District Court 5B (2014)
Adria Kester: First female appointed as a Judge of Iowa District Court 2B (2017)
Rosemary Shaw Sackett (1963): First female to practice law in Spencer, Iowa. She would later become a judge. [<nowiki/>Clay County, Iowa]
Margaret Kolarik (1925): First female lawyer in Clinton, Iowa [<nowiki/>Clinton County, Iowa]
Virginia Bedell: First female to serve as the County Attorney for Dickinson County, Iowa (1938)
Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson: First female to graduate from the University of Iowa College of Law (1873) [<nowiki/>Johnson County, Iowa]
Anna Harvat Holbert (1899): First female lawyer in Iowa City, Iowa [Johnson County, Iowa]
Ann Gales: First female district associate judge in Kossuth County, Iowa (2014)
Imogen B. Emery (1933): First female lawyer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa [<nowiki/>Linn County, Iowa]
Willie Stevenson Glanton: First female (and African American female) to become an Assistant Polk County Attorney
Linda K. Neuman: First female to serve as a part-time magistrate in Scott County, Iowa (c. 1980)
Ruth Harkin: First female to serve as the County Attorney for Story County, Iowa
Emily L. Newbold: First female to serve as a County Attorney in Van Buren County, Iowa (1923)
Sherry Raduenz: First female lawyer in Decorah, Iowa [<nowiki/>Winneshiek County, Iowa]

References