List of first women lawyers and judges in Vermont

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

Lawyers

 * First female: Jessie Bigwood (1902)
 * First female to practice before the Vermont Supreme Court: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1926
 * First female to independently try and win a murder case: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1929

State judges

 * First female (justice of the peace): Beatrice Y. Brown (1922)
 * First female (probate court): Mary Adams (1926) from 1928-1949
 * First female (trial court): Grace Johnson Murphy McGuire (1940) in 1965
 * First female (state-level trial court): Linda Levitt (1975) in 1984
 * First female (environmental): Merideth Wright in 1990
 * First female (Supreme Court of Vermont): Denise R. Johnson (1980) in 1990
 * First openly lesbian female (Supreme Court of Vermont): Beth Robinson (1989) in 2011
 * First female to judicially serve the same time as her spouse: Kirstin Schoonover in 2015


 * First woman of color (Chinese descent) (Supreme Court of Vermont): Nancy Waples in 2022

Federal judges

 * First female (U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont): Christina Reiss (1980) in 2009
 * First openly lesbian female (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Vermont): Beth Robinson (1989) in 2021

Attorney General of Vermont

 * First female: Charity Clark in 2022

Assistant Attorney General

 * First female: Georgiana Miranda around 1972

State's Attorney

 * First female: Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1927

United States Attorney

 * First female (acting): Eugenia Cowles in 2014
 * First female (permanent): Christina E. Nolan in 2017

Political Office

 * First female (Lieutenant Governor): Consuelo N. Bailey (1925) in 1955

Vermont Bar Association

 * First female (president): Ellen Mercer Fallon (1977) from 1987-1988

Firsts in local history

 * Beatrice Y. Brown (1922): First female lawyer in Southern Vermont
 * Madeline Cecelia Wood: First female probate judge in Addison County, Vermont (1938)
 * Mary Adams (1926): First female probate judge in Bennington County, Vermont (1928–1949)
 * Consuelo N. Bailey (1925): First female State's Attorney in Chittenden County, Vermont (1927)

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 Vermont