List of first women lawyers and judges in Nebraska

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

Ada Bittenbender: First female lawyer in Nebraska (1882)

Lawyers

• First female: Ada Bittenbender (1882) ^[1]
• First African American female: Zanzye H.A. Hill (1929) ^[2]
• First Latino American female: Olivia Guerra (1976) ^{[3] [4]}

State judges

• First (African American) female: Elizabeth Davis Pittman (1949) in 1971 ^{[5] [6] [7]}
• First female (district court): Betty Peterson Sharp in 1972 ^[8]
• First female (separate juvenile court): Colleen R. Buckley in 1973 ^[8]
• First female (county court): Mary Gilbride in 1992 ^[9]
• First female (Nebraska Court of Appeals): Lindsey Miller-Lerman in 1992 ^{[10] [11]}
• First female (workers' compensation court): Laureen Van Norman in 1993 ^[8]
• First female (district court): Mary Gilbride in 1998 ^[9]
• First female (Nebraska Supreme Court): Lindsey Miller-Lerman in 1998 ^{[10] [11]}
• First Hispanic American (female): Marcela A. Keim in 2011 ^[8]
• First Asian American (female): Riko E. Bishop in 2013 ^[8] (upon her appointment to the Nebraska Court of Appeals)
• First Native American (female) (district court): Andrea Miller in 2018 ^[12]
• First African American female (district court): Tressa Alioth in 2021 ^[13]
• First Native American (female) to sit on a Nebraska Supreme Court case: Andrea Miller in 2022 ^[14]

United States Attorney

• First female: Deborah Gilg in 2009 ^[15]

County Attorney

• First female: Grace Ballard (1914) during the 1920s ^[16]

Nebraska Bar Association

• First female president: Amy Longo (1979) in 1999 ^[17]

Firsts in local history

• Mary Gilbride: ^[9] First female to serve as a county judge (1992) and district court judge (1998) in the Fifth Judicial District, Nebraska [ Boone, Butler, Colfax, Hamilton, Merrick, Nance, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Seward and York Counties, Nebraska]
• Stefanie Martinez: ^[18] First Latino American female to serve as a Judge of the County Court, Second Judicial District in Nebraska (2013) [ Cass, Otoe, and Sarpy Counties, Nebraska]
• Karen Ditsch (1992): ^[19] First female elected County Attorney in Box Butte County, Nebraska (1999-2004)
• Frances O’Linn (1891): ^{[20] [21] [22]} First female lawyer in Dawes County, Nebraska
• Elizabeth Davis Pittman (1949): ^{[5] [6] [7]} First African American female to graduate from the Creighton School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska (1971). She was also the first female (and African American female) appointed to deputy on the staff of the Douglas County Attorney's Office (1964). [ Douglas County, Nebraska]
• Zanzye H.A. Hill (1929): ^[2] First African American female law graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1929) [ Lancaster County, Nebraska]
• Janice Gradwohl: ^[10] First female judge in Lancaster County, Nebraska (1974). She was also the first Deputy County Attorney. ^[23]
• Grace Ballard (1914): ^[16] First female to serve as the County Attorney for Washington County, Nebraska (c. 1920s)

See also

• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
• Timeline of women lawyers in the United States
• Women in law

Other topics of interest

• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Nebraska

References

1. Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Moulton. p.  87.
2. Smith, J. Clay Jr. (January 1, 1999). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844–1944. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN   0812216857.
3. Atencio, Dolores S. (2023). "Luminarias: An Empirical Portrait of the First Generation of Latina Lawyers 1880-1980". Chicanx Latinx Law Review. 39 (1). doi:10.5070/cllr.v39i1.61869. ISSN   1061-8899.
4. Shavers, Anna Williams (2023). "Fifty Years of the UNL College of Law Multicultural Legal Society". Nebraska Law Review. 101 (2).
5. "Fuller sense of our history". Omaha.com. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
6. Smith, Jessie Carney (December 1, 2012). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. Visible Ink Press. ISBN   9781578594245.
7. Gless, Alan G. (2008). The History of Nebraska Law. Ohio University Press. ISBN   9780821417874.
8. "History of the Nebraska Judicial Branch | Nebraska Judicial Branch". supremecourt.nebraska.gov. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
9. Farmer, Sam. "Gilbride stepping aside from bench". Wahoo-Ashland-Waverly.com. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
10. Gradwohl, Janice (April 2000). "INCHING THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING: The History of the Selection of Women Judges in Nebraska" (PDF). Nebraska Lawyer. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 2, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
11. "Lindsey Miller-Lerman '73: Marking a Path to Nebraska's Highest Court". www.law.columbia.edu. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
12. "Former NCIA board chairwoman Andrea Miller is first Native American District Judge. | NCIA". indianaffairs.state.ne.us. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
13. "Nebraska District Judge Tressa Alioth Wants To See More Diversity". Black Enterprise. July 18, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
14. "Former NCIA Commissioner Sits in On Nebraska Supreme Court | NCIA". indianaffairs.state.ne.us. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
15. Clarridge, Emerson. "Nebraska U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg retires after being asked to resign; Stenberg, Spray mentioned as possible successors". Omaha.com. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
16. Buhrman, Kathy Haley (October 30, 2017). Washington County. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   9781439663431.
17. "2002 Amy I. Longo". www.alumni.creighton.edu. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
18. Morman, LeAnne. "Papillion Woman Appointed Judge Of 2nd Judicial District County Court". www.wowt.com. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
19. "Karen Ditsch Attorney, Mediator, and Arbitrator - About Karen Ditsch". www.karenditsch.com. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
20. Gless, Alan G. (2008). The History of Nebraska Law. Ohio University Press. ISBN   9780821417874.
21. "Jim McKee: Fannie O'Linn, the first, second or fifth female attorney in state". JournalStar.com. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
22. Carpenter, Deb; Korte, Ken (July 27, 2004). Chadron. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   9781439614952.
23. (2023, January 4). <em>Lincoln Journal Star (NE)</em>, p. 8. Available from NewsBank: Access World News: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=image/v2%3A182F938DC5B82838%40AWNB-18ED459F1482BAAB%402459949-18ED45A0B8931B63%407-18ED45A0B8931B63%40.