This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Louisiana. 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
Lawyers
Bettie Runnels (1898): First female lawyer in Louisiana
Marian Berkett (1937): First female lawyer hired by a law firm in Louisiana
Mary Gloria Lawson (1956): First African American female lawyer in Louisiana
Law clerk
Veronica Odinet Koclanes: First female to serve as the clerk of the court for Louisiana Supreme Court (2021)
State judges
Anna Judge Veters Levy (c. 1922): First female judge in Louisiana (1941) Alwine Louise Smith Ragland (1935): First female elected judge (1974) Joan Armstrong (1967): First African American female judge in Louisiana (1974) and serve on the Louisiana Court of Appeals (1984) Catherine D. Kimball (1970): First female elected to the Eighteenth Judicial District Court (1983) and serve on the Supreme Court of Louisiana (1992) Rae Swent: First female to serve on the Ninth Judicial District Court in Louisiana Ann B. McIntyre (1977): First female to serve on the Fifth Judicial District Court in Louisiana Felicia Toney Williams: First female (and African American female) elected to the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal (1992) and serve as its Chief Judge (2018) Bernette Joshua Johnson (1969): First African American female to serve as the Associate Justice (1994-2013) and Chief Justice for the Supreme Court of Louisiana (2013) Patricia Minaldi (1983): First female elected as the Judge for the Fourteenth Judicial District Court in Louisiana (1995) Patricia Hedges: First female appointed as a Judge of the Twenty-Second Judicial District Court in Louisiana (1995) Lori Landry: First African American female appointed as a Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District in Louisiana (2002) Jane Margaret Triche-Milazzo: First female appointed as a Judge of the Twenty-Third Judicial District in Louisiana (2008) Monique F. Rauls (1993): First African American female appointed as a Judge of the Ninth District Court in Louisiana (2015) Amy Burford-McCartney: First female judge elected in the Forty-Second Judicial District in Louisiana (2016) Marissa Hutabarat (2010): First Indonesian American (female) judge in Louisiana (2020) Marla M. Abel: First female judge elected in the Seventeenth Judicial District in Louisiana (2019)
Federal judges
Veronica DiCarlo Wicker: First (Italian American) female to serve as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana (1979) Nannette Jolivette Brown (1988): First African American female to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (2011) Shelly Deckert Dick (1988): First female to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana (2013)
Assistant Attorney General
Constance A. Koury (1980): First female Assistant Attorney General of Louisiana (1997)
United States Attorney
Stephanie A. Finley: First female to serve as a U.S. Attorney in Louisiana (2010)
District Attorneys
Keva Landrum-Johnson: First female (and African American female) to serve as a District Attorney in Louisiana (2007) Bridget A. Dinvaut: First African American female elected as a District Attorney in Louisiana (2015)
Assistant District Attorney
Lori Landry: First African American female to serve as an Assistant District Attorney for the Sixteenth Judicial District in Louisiana (c. 1993)
Bar Association
Marta-Ann Schnabel: First female to serve as the President of the Louisiana State Bar Association Kim M. Boyle: First African American female to serve as the President of the Louisiana State Bar Association (2009-2010)