List of first women lawyers and judges in Vermont

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

Lawyers

First female: Jessie Bigwood (1902)
First female to practice before the Vermont Supreme Court: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1926
First female to independently try and win a murder case: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1929

State judges

First female (justice of the peace): Beatrice Y. Brown (1922)
First female (probate court): Mary Adams (1926) from 1928-1949
First female (trial court): Grace Johnson Murphy McGuire (1940) in 1965
First female (state-level trial court): Linda Levitt (1975) in 1984
First female (environmental): Merideth Wright in 1990
First female (Supreme Court of Vermont): Denise R. Johnson (1980) in 1990
First openly lesbian female (Supreme Court of Vermont): Beth Robinson (1989) in 2011
First female to judicially serve the same time as her spouse: Kirstin Schoonover in 2015
First woman of color (Chinese descent) (Supreme Court of Vermont): Nancy Waples in 2022

Federal judges

First female (U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont): Christina Reiss (1980) in 2009
First openly lesbian female (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Vermont): Beth Robinson (1989) in 2021

Attorney General of Vermont

First female: Charity Clark in 2022

Assistant Attorney General

First female: Georgiana Miranda around 1972

State's Attorney

First female: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1927

United States Attorney

First female (acting): Eugenia Cowles in 2014
First female (permanent): Christina E. Nolan in 2017

Political Office

First female (Lieutenant Governor): Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1955

Vermont Bar Association

First female (president): Ellen Mercer Fallon (1977) from 1987-1988

Firsts in local history

Beatrice Y. Brown (1922): First female lawyer in Southern Vermont
Madeline Cecelia Wood: First female probate judge in Addison County, Vermont (1938)
Mary Adams (1926): First female probate judge in Bennington County, Vermont (1928Ã¢ÂÂ1949)
Consuelo N. Bailey (1925): First female State's Attorney in Chittenden County, Vermont (1927)
Jessica Brown: First African American female appointed as the Burlington City Attorney, Chittenden County, Vermont (2024)

References