State Bar of Arizona history

Jubal Craig’s son Walter Craig joined us in 1936.

In 1948 the Bar established its first central office in Phoenix.

1951 – Lorna Lockwood becomes the first woman Superior Court judge in Arizona.

1952 – Mary Anne Richey becomes the first Deputy County Attorney in Pima County and goes on to become the first woman United States Attorney in the District of Arizona and Arizona's first woman federal judge.

1953 – (Judge) Lawrence Huerta becomes the first Native American admitted to the State Bar of Arizona.

The first Executive Director, Don Phillips, was hired in 1954.

In 1957, John O’Connor joined Fennemore Craig.

James M. Murphy, the 24th president of the State Bar of Arizona, recounted the founding of the Bar in a 1960 article for the Arizona Law Review:

1961 – Lorna Lockwood becomes the first woman Arizona Supreme Court Justice and goes on to become the first woman in the United States to be Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court.

In 1963, following his service to the Warren Commission, he was appointed as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

Husted prepared the first annual budget for the association in 1965 and it totaled $78,000.

The arrival of the Lionel Sawyer lawyers included the legendary Sam Lionel, who co-founded the Lionel Sawyer firm in 1967 with former Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer.

In 1973, the Arizona Supreme Court drafted Rule 31 (now Rule 32) which created joint oversight by the legislature and supreme court over the State Bar.

In 1974, Fennemore Craig hired our first two female attorneys, Ruth McGregor and Toni McClory.

1980 – Cecil B. Patterson, Jr. becomes the first black judge appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court.

When Justice O’Connor joined the Supreme Court in September 1981, she hired Ms.

When Husted left in 1983, membership numbers had climbed beyond 7,000.

In 1988 the Bar opened a satellite office in Tucson, serving lawyers in Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise Counties.

Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements were adopted in 1991.

In September 1995 he became the first black judge appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One.

Justice McGregor served as an associate justice until 2005, when she became the court’s second female chief justice.

2012 – In conjunction with Univision, the Bar launches "Abodagos a su Lado", a phone bank manned by volunteer lawyers to answer consumer legal questions for the Hispanic community.

2016 – Lisa Loo becomes the first Asian-American president of the State Bar of Arizona.

The larger San Francisco Bay area captured the nation’s biggest share of venture capital invested in 2020 at 36%. And unlike other cities in the Bay Area, Oakland is growing.