This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in North America (a separate list is devoted to the United States). It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are the first women in their country to achieve a certain distinction such as graduating from law school.
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The General Council of the Judiciary is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, and judges, as it is established by the Spanish Constitution of 1978, article 122 and developed by the Organic Law 6/1985 of the Judicial Power (LOPJ). The President of the CGJP is also the president of the Supreme Court.
This is a short timeline of women lawyers. Much more information on the subject can be found at: List of first women lawyers and judges by nationality.
Dame Sandra Prunella Mason is a Barbadian politician, lawyer, and diplomat who is serving as the first president of Barbados since 2021. She was previously the eighth and final governor-general of Barbados from 2018 to 2021, the second woman to hold the office. On 20 October 2021, Mason was elected by the Parliament of Barbados to become the country's first president, and took office on 30 November 2021, when Barbados ceased to be a constitutional monarchy and became a republic.
Zarela Villanueva Monge is a Costa Rican magistrate who served as President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica from 13 May 2013 to 13 May 2017.
Désirée Patricia Bernard is a Guyanese lawyer and jurist who was the country's first female judge of the High Court in 1980 and Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court in 1992. She was appointed Chief Justice of Guyana in 1996, Chancellor of the Judiciary of Guyana and the Caribbean in 2001 and a Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2005. In 2014, she was appointed to the Bermuda Court of Appeal.
Manuel Marchena Gómez is a Spanish judge and prosecutor. He currently serves as Magistrate of the Supreme Court and Chairman of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.
Prior to the 20th Century, there were few women in law in the United Kingdom. Prior to the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, women were not permitted to practice law in the United Kingdom. By 1931 there were around 100 female solicitors. The first female-only law partnership was founded in 1933. In 2010, a report by The Lawyer found that 22 percent of partners at the UK's top 100 firms were women; a follow-up report in 2015 found that figure had not changed. Since 2014, a number of large corporate firms of solicitors have set gender diversity targets to increase the percentage of women within their partnerships. By 2019, 51% of British solicitors were women.
Maria Paulina Aguirre Suárez is an Ecuadorian judge and lawyer, who became president of the National Court of Justice on 26 January 2018. At the time, she had 30 years of judicial experience and was the first woman to hold the position. Her election was by unanimous decision of the 21 magistrates in the plenary session of the court.
Silvia Patricia Valdés Quezada is a lawyer who served as the third female president of the Supreme Court of Justice and the judicial branch of Guatemala, from 2019 until 2023.
María Isabel Perelló Doménech is a Spanish judge. Since 2009, she has served on the Supreme Court. In September 2024, she became the first woman to preside over the General Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court of Spain.
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