New York City Bar Association history

Couzins graduated in 1871 and the University’s website reports she became the 4th woman admitted to the practice of law in the United States Ms.

1872 – First African American woman admitted to the bar – Charlotte E. Ray (District of Columbia)

1878 – Hastings Law School admits women (after losing a law school about female admissions)

1879 – First woman admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court – Belva Lockwood. (She had to sue the Court for permission.)

1888 – New York University admits women to attend law classes as part of its Graduate School of Arts and Science. (One of its graduates – Stanleyetta Titus – became the first woman admitted to the bar in NYS.)

1893 – First woman lawyer admitted to the New York State Bar – Stanleyetta Titus (graduation of NYU Law School)

1900 – First woman admitted to practice law in the Hawaii federal court – Elizabeth Hayes Ryan

1908 – Portia Law School established in Boston (all female student body); this school is now called the New England School of Law

1911 – Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association established (first “women’s bar association” in New York State)

1919 – Columbia University School of Law admits women

In the early 1920’s she became the first woman Deputy Attorney General of New York State.

1923 – Northeastern University School of Law (in Boston) admits women

Florence Ellinwood Allen (also first Federal Court Judge in 1934)

1942 – First Asian woman admitted to practice in Hawaii – Sau Ung Loo Chan

1943 – First woman appointed to the position of federal prosecutor in New York State – Hon.

1944 – First woman to serve as a Law Clerk at the United States Supreme Court – Lucille Lomen

1951 – First woman appointed as Dean of an accredited United States law school – Miriam Theresa Rooney (Seton Hall University School of Law; notably, 1951 was also the first year that Seton Hall had a law school)

1953 – First Japanese American woman admitted to the bar in Hawaii – Patsy (Matsu Takemoto) Mink (later became the first Asian American elected to the United States Congress)

The first woman member of the State Bar Association was Georgia Hare, who also received distinction from the Onondaga Bar Association as a recipient of the Fifty Year Lawyer Award in 1960.

1965 – First woman appointed a Chief Judge of a state Supreme Court – Hon.

1979 – National Association of Women Judges established

1980 – First woman (and first Asian) appointed to the federal bench in Hawaii – Hon.

1981 – First woman appointed to serve as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court – Hon.

1984 – First woman to run for the position of Vice President of the United States – New York attorney Geraldine Ferraro

1988 – First African American woman on appointed to a state’s highest court – Hon.

1991 – First state with a majority of women on its highest court – Minnesota Supreme Court

1993 – First woman to serve as Attorney General of the United States – Janet Reno

In 1997 the Association adopted the following Mission Statement, defining the Association’s objectives as it approaches the beginning of the next century:

2011 – First woman appointed to the federal bench in the Northern District of New York – Hon.

2013 – First woman appointed to the federal bench in the Western District of New York – Hon.