List of first women lawyers and judges in South Carolina

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

Law School

First female law graduate: Claudia J. Sullivan (1918)

Lawyers

First female: James M. Perry (1918)
First African American female: Cassandra E. Maxwell (1938)
First female to practice in South Carolina's federal courts: Sue Evelyn Lester

State judges

First female (magistrate): Kitty Herbert in 1979
First female (judge): Judy Bridges in 1983
First female (Acting; South Carolina Supreme Court): Carol Connor in 1984
First female (South Carolina Supreme Court): Jean H. Toal in 1988
First female (South Carolina Circuit Court): Carol Connor in 1988
First African American female (family court): Abigail Rogers in 1991
First female (South Carolina Court of Appeals): Carol Connor in 1993
First female (Chief Justice; South Carolina Supreme Court): Jean H. Toal in 2000

Federal judges

First female (federal court): Jean Galloway Bissell in 1984
First female (United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit): Karen J. Williams (1980) in 1992
First African American female (U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina): Margaret B. Seymour (1977) in 1998
First African American female from South Carolina (United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit): DeAndrea G. Benjamin in 2023

Deputy Attorney General

First female: Karen L. Henderson

United States Attorney

First female: Sherri Lydon in 2018

South Carolina Bar Association

First female president: Elaine Fowler in 1993
First African American female president: Shaheena Bennett in 2024

Firsts in local history

Courtney Clyburn-Pope: First female (and African American) to serve as a resident judge (Second Judicial Circuit) in Aiken County, South Carolina (2019)
Grace White (1937): First female lawyer in Beaufort, South Carolina [<nowiki/>Beaufort County, South Carolina]
Mabel Lee Parrott Shuler: First female (non-attorney) magistrate in Berkeley County, South Carolina (1984)
Clyde Best Sandifer: First female (non-attorney) magistrate in Bamberg County, South Carolina (1960)
Hannah R. Axelman (1931): First female lawyer in Charleston County, South Carolina
Ruth Cupp: First female lawyer admitted to the Charleston County Bar Association
Margie Elizabeth Fuller Cannon: First female magistrate in Charleston County, South Carolina (1968)
Barbara Usher Griffin: First female magistrate judge for Chester County, South Carolina
Nettie B. Cusack: First African American Female Probate Judge in Dorchester County (2005-2011)
Carolyn Smith Knight: First female magistrate in Florence County, South Carolina
Nancy Isabelle Richardson Shelley: First female magistrate in Horry County, South Carolina
Foye Covington: First female magistrate in Orangeburg County, South Carolina (1999)
Jasmine Twitty: First female (and African American female) to become the youngest judge appointed in Easley, South Carolina (Pickens County, South Carolina; 2015)
Karen Sanchez Roper: First female resident judge in Pickens County, South Carolina (2016)

References