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Joanne M. Smith was the first woman elected chief judge of a district court in Minnesota in 1989. Governor Perpich appointed Joanne Smith as a second judicial district judge on November 10, 1983.

Harriet Lansing is a lawyer, feminist, and a former judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Harriet Lansing was born May 19, 1945 in Waverly, Wisconsin, one of seven children. She earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science from Macalester College in 1967 and her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1970, one of ten women in a class of 250. In 1972 she worked for the St. Paul City Attorney's Office on environmental regulation and eventually, criminal prosecution and appellate work. She started the first women's law firm with three other women in 1973: Lansing, Oakes and Caperton. She married St. Paul attorney Allan Klein in 1973. In 1976 she was appointed to be St. Paul's first woman City Attorney. St. Paul was the largest city in the U.S. to have a woman City Attorney.

Governor Rudy Perpich appointed her to the Ramsey County Municipal Court in 1978, the first woman on that court. In 1983, Governor Perpich appointed her as one of the first six judges on the newly-created Minnesota Court of Appeals where she served for 28 years, writing more than 2000 opinions. She retired on in 2011.

Judge Lansing was the vice chair for the Gender Fairness Task Force, chaired by Justice Rosalie Wahl. She chaired and helped to establish the Family Law Mediation Program.

Judge Lansing joined the Uniform Law Commission in 1993, served as chair of the Commission's Executive Committee from 2011-2013, and as President from 2013-2015. She taught at William Mitchell College of Law and at the Appellate Judges Institute at New York University.