Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. She was popularly dubbed "the Notorious R.B.G.", a moniker she later embraced.
Patricia Ann McGowan Wald was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1986 until 1991. She was the Court's first female chief judge and its first woman to be elevated, having been appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. From 1999 to 2001, Wald was a Justice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The number of women in the United States judiciary has increased as more women have entered law school, but women still face significant barriers in pursuing legal careers.
Diane Pamela Wood is an American attorney who serves as the director of the American Law Institute and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. She previously served as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Julia Smith Gibbons is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Ruth Ida Abrams was the first female justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where she served from 1978 to 2000, and the first female appellate justice in Massachusetts.
Susan Mary Kiefel is an Australian lawyer and barrister who was the 13th Chief Justice of Australia from 2017 to 2023. She concurrently served on the High Court of Australia from 2007 to 2023, previously being a judge of both the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Federal Court of Australia. Kiefel is the first woman to serve in the position of Chief Justice.
Vanessa Lynne Bryant is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Irma Elsa Gonzalez is a retired United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, who was the first Mexican-American female federal judge. She is married to former federal prosecutor and trial attorney Robert S. Brewer Jr. who served as the U.S. attorney for Southern California from 2019 to 2021.
Susan Pia Graber is an American attorney and jurist. She is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A native of Oklahoma, she was the 90th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1990 to 1998. She served on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 1988 to 1990.
Rosanna Malouf Peterson is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington and a former professor at Gonzaga University School of Law. She is the first female judge to serve in the Eastern District.
Lucy Haeran Koh is an American lawyer serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Koh previously served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 2010 to 2021. She also served as a California state court judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2008 to 2010. She is the first Korean American woman to serve on a federal appellate court in the United States.
Barbara Lagoa is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to becoming a federal judge, she was the first Latina and Cuban American woman appointed to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida.
Beth Robinson is an American lawyer and judge from Vermont. She is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and is the first openly lesbian judge to serve on any federal court of appeals. Robinson served as an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court from 2011 to 2021.
Wilhelmina Marie Wright is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. She is the only jurist in Minnesota's history to be state district court judge, appellate court judge and state supreme court justice. She was formerly an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and a judge of the Minnesota District Court, Second Judicial District.
Susan Gertrude Braden is a former judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Braden was appointed to that court in 2003 by President George W. Bush. She was appointed chief judge by President Donald Trump on March 13, 2017 and assumed senior status on July 13, 2018, and retired in 2019.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.
Leona Valerie Theron is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before her elevation in July 2017, she served in the Supreme Court of Appeal between December 2010 and June 2017. She is the first Coloured judge to serve in the Constitutional Court.
Allison Blair Jones Rushing is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit since March 2019.
Sonja Katharina Eichwede is a German lawyer and politician representing the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She was elected to the Bundestag in the 2021 German federal election.
