List of first women lawyers and judges in New Mexico

This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in New Mexico. 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 New Mexico's history

Lawyers

First female admitted: Henrietta Hume Pettijohn Buck (1892)
First female (actively practice): Nellie C. Brewer Pierce (1908)
First Hispanic American female: Betty Ann Camunez (1972)
First Pueblo female: Carol Jean Vigil (c. 1977)
First undocumented female: JazmÃÂn Irazoqui-Ruiz in 2017

State judges

First female: Olga Melinda Victoria Miller in 1910
First female (district court): Mary Coon Walters (1962) in 1972
First Mexican American female (Second Judicial District): Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1978
First female (New Mexico Supreme Court): Mary Coon Walters (1962) in 1984
First female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Christina Armijo (1975) from 1996-2011
First Native American (Pueblo) (female): Carol Jean Vigil (c. 1977) in 1998
First African American female (district court): Angela Jewell in 1999
First female (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): Pamela B. Minzner (1972) in 1999
First Hispanic American female (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): Petra F. Jimenez Maes (1973) in 2003
First openly lesbian female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Linda Vanzi in 2010
First female (Seventh Judicial District): Mercedes C. Murphy in 2014
First female (Sixth Judicial District): Jennifer Delaney
First African American (female) (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Shammara Henderson in 2020
First openly lesbian (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): C. Shannon Bacon in 2022

Federal judges

First female (Navajo Nation Judicial Branch): Marie Roanhorse Neswood from 1976Ã¢ÂÂ1989
First (Latino American) female (U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico): Martha VÃÂ¡zquez (1978) in 1993

Attorney General of New Mexico

First Mexican American female: Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1999

United States Attorney

First female (Acting): Ruth Cooper Streeter in 1969

District Attorney

First female: Margaret Weldon Lamb (1969) from 1978-1980

Political Office

First Hispanic American female (Governor of New Mexico): Susana Martinez (1986) in 2011
First Hispanic American female (elected from the Democratic Party as the Governor of New Mexico): Michelle Lujan Grisham (1987) in 2018

State Bar of New Mexico

First African American female admitted: Barbara Brown Simmons (c. 1974)
First female president: Amanda L. Ashford in 1990
First Latino American female president: Mary Torres in 2002
First African American (female) president: Aja N. Brooks in 2025

Firsts in local history

Barbara Brown Simmons (c. 1974): First African American female graduate from the University of New Mexico School of Law [<nowiki/>Bernalillo County, New Mexico]
Kari Brandenburg: First female District Attorney for Bernalillo County, New Mexico (2000)
Kea Riggs: First female district court judge in Chaves County, New Mexico
Esther Smith Van Soelen: First female lawyer in Clovis, New Mexico [<nowiki/>Curry County, New Mexico]
Olga Melinda Victoria Miller: First female judge in DoÃÂ±a Ana County, New Mexico (1910)
Nancy Beard: First female Magistrate Judge in Eddy County, New Mexico
Edith Gutierrez: First female (non-attorney) judge in Silver City, New Mexico [Grant County, New Mexico<nowiki>]</nowiki>
Bettye Dean: First female magistrate in Lincoln County, New Mexico (1983)
Angela "Spence" Pacheco: First female to serve as the judicial district attorney in Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe Counties, New Mexico (2008)
Brenna Clani-Washinawatok: First Native American (female) appointed as Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of New Mexico (2025) [<nowiki/>McKinley and San Juan Counties, New Mexico]
Irene Saiz Mirabal-Counts: First female to serve as a Magistrate Judge in Otero County, New Mexico (2016)

References