List of first women lawyers and judges in West Virginia

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

Lawyer

First female: Agnes Westbrook Morrison (1895)

State judges

First female: Elizabeth Hallanan (1951) in 1959
First African American female (circuit court): Irene Berger (1979) in 1994
First female (Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals): Stephanie Thacker (1990)

Federal judges

First female (U.S. Magistrate Judge): Mary Stanley in 1992
First African American female (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia): Irene Berger (1979) in 2009
First female (Chief Judge for Bankruptcy Court; U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia): B. McKay Mignault in 2022

Assistant United States Attorney

First female: Mary Stanley around 1977
First female (Northern District of West Virginia): Betsy C. Jividen in 2009

Deputy Attorney General

First female: Marianne Stonestreet

Assistant Attorney General

First female: Virginia Mae Brown (1947) from 1952 to 1961

West Virginia State Bar Association

First female (president): Barbara Baxter from 1994 to 1995
First African American female (president): Meshea Poore in 2017

West Virginia Judicial Association

First female (president): Jennifer Bailey in 2022

Firsts in local history

Theresa Cogar Turner: First female to become a Judge of the Family Court Judge for Lewis, Braxton, and Upshur Counties, West Virginia (2016)
Kathi McBee: First female magistrate in Barbour County, West Virginia (1996)
Janet Steele (1977): First female judge in Fayette County, West Virginia
Alice Johnson McChesney (1922): First female lawyer in Charleston, West Virginia [<nowiki/>Kanawha County, West Virginia]
Elizabeth Aileen Hatfield (1933): First female lawyer in Logan County, West Virginia
Rhonda Wade: First female prosecutor in Marshall County, West Virginia
Marye L. Wright: First African American male to graduate from the West Virginia University College of Law (1976)
Kristina "Kris" Raynes: First female prosecutor in Putnam County, West Virginia (2023)

References